^crsrof^^^ 


V- 


APR    8  1912 


D'visioQ     h  ^.  ?y1 
Section 


The   Historic  Christ 
In  the  Faith  of  To-day 


The  Historic  Christ 


IN 


The  Faith  of  To-day 


BY 


yr:,,:,  Or  r.:^ 
a;.--- 

APR    8  1912 


y 


WILLIAM  ALEXANDER  GRIST 


New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming    H.    Revell    Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,  191 1,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  123  N.  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto :  25  Richmond  St.,  W. 
London :  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:  100  Princes  Street 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION 
THE  FAITH  BEHIND  THE  GOSPELS 

BOOK  I 
THE  DAYS  OF  THE  PREPARATION 

CHAP. 

I.  The  Presupposed  Ideal  of  the  Gospels 

II.  From  the  Ideal  to  the  Historic  Christ 

III.  The  Voice  in  the  Wilderness  . 

IV.  Jesus  is  Baptized  by  John 
V.  The  Temptation  of  the  Son  of  God 

BOOK  II 

THE  ANNUNCIATION  OF  THE  KINGDOM 

I.  The  Morning  Star  and  the  Sun  of  Righteousness 

II.  The  First  Months  of  Jesus'  Ministry 

III.  Jesus'  Message  of  the  Sovereignty  of  God 

IV.  The  Miracles  of  Jesus 

V.  The  First  Breach  between  Jesus  and  Judaism 

BOOK  III 

THE  SCHOOL  OF  JESUS 

I.    The  New  Apostolate 

II.    The  Ideal  Life  of  the  New  Kingdom— The  Ordination  Discourse 
on  the  Mount         ......... 

III.  The  Ethic  of  Discipleship  in  the  Reign  of  God 

IV.  The  Training  of  Evangelists  in  Two  Missions 

BOOK  IV 

THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  CONFLICT  BETWEEN 
JESUS  AND  THE  HIERARCHY 

I.  The  Examination  and  Defence  of  Jesus 

II.  The  Egoism  of  Jesus 

III.  The   Persean    Vision  ........ 

IV.  The  Raising  of  Lazarus 

5 


PAGE 
19 
32 
42 

SO 
58 


73 
86 

96 
109 
122 


I3S 

146 
156 
167 


181 
193 
207 

215 


Contents 


BOOK  V 
THE  REJECTED  KING 

CHAP.  'AGE 

I.    The  Feeding  of  the  Multitude 231 

II.     The    Mysticism    of    Jesus    and    the    Disillusionment    of    the 

People 242 

III.  Despised  and  Rejected  of  Men       ......  255 

IV.  Peter's  Confession  at  Caesarea  Philippi 265 

V.    The  Messiah's  First  Announcement  of  the  Passion  .         .         .  277 


bOOK  VI 

SELF-DEDICATION  UNTO  DEATH 

I.  The   Transfiguration 287 

II.  The   Disciples  of  the  Messiah 299 

III.  The  Church  of  the  Messiah 3" 

IV.  The  Days  of  His  Analepsis 325 

V.  The  Ministry  of  Ransom 338 

BOOK  VII 

THE  ROYAL  PROGRESS  AND  MESSIANIC 
STRUGGLE 

I.  Through  Jericho  to  Bethany 35i 

II.  The  Triumphal   Entry 364 

III.  The  Passing  Day  of  Grace 375 

IV.  Attack  and  Counter-Attack 387 


BOOK  VIII 

THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  THE  PASSION 

I.    The  Greeks  Desire  to  See  Jesus 403 

II.    The  Apocalypse  of  Jesus 416 

III.  The  Last  Supper 43i 

IV.  The  Valediction 44^ 


BOOK  IX 

THE  FINISHED  WORK 

I.  The  Hour  and  the  Cup .459 

II.  The  Way  of  the  Cross 47i 

III.  Jesus  Rises  and  Appears 485 

IV.  The  Regnant  but  Veiled  Christ 499 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  FAITH  BEHIND  THE  GOSPELS 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  FAITH  BEHIND  THE  GOSPELS 

I.  One  of  the  elements  of  modern  religious  life  to  be  greatly 
prized  is  a  widespread  desire  to  learn  all  that  can  be  known  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Every  attempt  to  meet  this  need  of  a  reliable 
representation  of  the  facts  about  Jesus  must  be  based  upon  pro- 
longed criticism  of  the  historical  sources,  combined  with  recurrent 
contemplation  of  His  Person.  The  Gospels  must  be  appraised, 
or  they  will  never  be  appreciated.  Evasion  of  free  inquiry,  either 
on  the  pretext  of  the  sanctity  of  the  books  or  the  majesty  of  their 
subject,  excites  a  corrosive  suspicion  that  the  history  cannot  be 
trustworthy.  Even  now  an  opinion  is  abroad  that  we  cannot  be 
sure  of  the  truth  of  the  Gospels  ;  and  with  it  mingles  an  impatience 
at  endless,  abstruse  inquiries  which  lead  nowhere.  From  all  sorts 
and  conditions  of  men  there  comes  a  loud  demand  for  frankness 
from  competent  scholars.  While  there  can  be  only  a  limited  num- 
ber of  men  intellectually  equipped  for  dealing  with  the  recondite 
problems  arising  out  of  the  Synoptical  and  Johannine  literature, 
there  is  a  growing  multitude  who  feel  themselves  held  by  the  soul's 
quest  for  Jesus  Christ.  The  following  study,  therefore,  aims  at 
showing  how  one  of  the  multitude  who  seek  for  this  supremely 
important  knowledge,  having  been  guided  by  an  honest,  earnest 
impressionism,  has  gained  the  satisfaction  of  a  reconstructed  con- 
ception of  the  world's  greatest,  most  loving  and  Divine  Teacher. 
Jesus  is  no  spent  force;  He  is  still  luring  men  forward  by  His 
gracious,  strong  personality.  The  rigorous  criticism  to  which  the 
Gospels  have  been  subjected  has  resulted  in  a  vindication  of  their 
substantial  historicity.  Phoenixlike  a  new  thought  of  Jesus  rises 
from  the  fires  of  criticism,  and  we  see  this  indestructible  Person 
more  clearly  than  any  generation  since  the  time  of  the  Apostles. 
How  He  lived  and  died,  what  He  believed  and  taught,  can  be 
discovered  with  greater  certainty  and  lucidity  by  reason  of  the 
work  done  by  scholars  and  critics. 

9 


10  Introduction 

2.  It  should  never  be  forgotten  that  the  objective  of  all  study 
of  the  New  Testament  is  to  see  Jesus  and  to  reproduce  His  image 
for  others.  The  peril  of  all  historical  research,  however,  is  that 
the  goal  may  be  forgotten  through  the  interests  inherent  in  the 
processes.  The  beauty  and  perfection  of  living  things  are  seen 
best,  not  in  the  laboratory,  but  in  the  open  air.  They  who  desire 
to  get  the  best  out  of  the  Gospels  must  cultivate  this  open-air 
mood — an  attitude  at  once  impressionable  and  responsive.  If  the 
present  can  be  explained  only  through  the  past,  the  past  can  be 
understood  only  by  the  present.  Knowledge  of  human  nature  to- 
day is  the  guide  for  every  student  of  the  past.  Even  in  the  tasks 
of  criticism,  some  of  the  instruments  of  research  must  be  sought 
outside  the  library ;  gifts  of  sympathy,  imagination,  and  knowledge 
of  affairs  are  as  necessary  as  scholarship  for  the  treatment  of  the 
Gospels.  Critical  results  are  often  errant  and  crude  because 
the  humanness  of  the  story  has  been  neglected,  and  the  evangelists 
have  been  regarded  as  types  and  personifications  of  theological 
tendencies.  There  are  difficulties,  uncertainties,  obscurities  and 
discrepancies  in  the  Gospels:  these,  however,  may  be  over-em- 
phasized; for  it  must  be  admitted  that,  if  such  defects  were  all 
cleared  away,  the  impression  Jesus  has  made  upon  the  minds  of 
men  would  not  be  materially  modified.  Some  difficulties  there 
are,  which  inhere  in  the  naturalistic  bias  of  the  inquirer,  rather 
than  in  the  subject  itself.  After  scholarship  and  criticism  have 
been  given  freest  exercise,  a  spiritual  reconstruction  of  the  mate- 
rials is  necessary ;  and  for  this  the  student  must  be  qualified  by  a 
certain  moral  affinity  with  Jesus  Himself.  We  deprecate  no  criti- 
cism of  the  Gospels,  however  ruthless  ;  but  we  deem  contemplation 
of  Christ  as  equally  necessary  in  every  attempt  to  discover  Him 
afresh.  And  for  this  task  which  has  iDeen  laid  upon  our  age,  all 
thoughtful  persons  are  qualified  in  part ;  for  the  character  depicted 
in  the  Gospels  embodies  the  Ideal  which  is  latent  in  the  constitu- 
tion of  human  reason.  The  fuller  our  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ 
becomes,  the  more  does  it  appear  that  He  answers  objectively  and 
historically  to  that  moral  idealism  which  exists  in  embryo  in  every 
intelligence. 

3.  One  of  the  defects  charged  against  the  Gospels  is  their  sub- 
jectivity. They  give  us,  it  is  said,  men's  thoughts  and  feelings 
about  Christ  rather  than  a  trustworthy  photograph  of  Him.  It 
is  true,  Jesus  can  be  seen  only  as  He  was  mirrored  in  other  minds ; 


The  Faith  Behind  the  Gospels  11 

and  the  tone  and  colour  of  those  minds  affect  their  representations 
of  Him.  But  all  written  history  must  plead  guilty  of  this  char- 
acteristic of  subjectivity;  the  most  scientific  historians  can  but 
write  as  they  think  and  feel.  Such  anthropomorphism  is  inex- 
tricably bound  up  with  all  knowledge.  The  logic  of  modern 
Pyrrhonism  undermines  all  science  before  it  completes  the  circle 
and  passes  over  into  dogmatism.  The  admission  that  the  Gospels 
were  produced  in  harmony  with  the  laws  of  human  thought  may 
be  made  ungrudgingly;  the  authors,  whoever  they  were,  could 
but  give  us  their  reflection  of  the  Master.  We  read  but  once 
of  His  writing,  and  that  was  in  the  dust;  the  only  authorship  He 
aimed  at  was  of  "  living  epistles  " — the  changed  characters  of 
men.  And  at  first  the  disciples  seem  to  have  cherished  no  design 
of  writing  about  Him;  they  cannot  be  thought  of  as  contem- 
porary diarists  or  literary  artists;  they  were  not  reporters.  So 
far  as  they  were  concerned,  the  Gospels  were  an  afterthought. 
The  glorified  Christ  of  the  Apostles  was  not  only  the  antecedent, 
but  also  the  raison  d'etre  of  the  Gospels.  It  was  the  faith  author- 
itatively expressed  in  the  Epistles  that  made  the  writing  of  the 
Gospels  a  necessity ;  it  became  an  obligation  upon  the  Church  to 
recount  the  facts  which  created  the  apostolic  faith;  and  in  their 
turn  those  later  writings  became  the  noblest  apologia  for  the 
Apostles'  Creed.  The  remarkable  propaganda  that  followed  the 
Crucifixion  created  the  spiritual  atmosphere  in  which  alone  the 
Gospels  could  be  produced.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that,  in  an 
incredibly  short  time,  the  Apostles  passed  from  cowardice  to 
invincible  courage,  from  despondency  to  triumphant  faith.  They 
boldly  ascribed  to  Jesus  a  heavenly  or  ideal  preexistence,  teach- 
ing that  He  had  passed  from  a  heavenly  state  into  human  history 
through  the  gate  of  birth ;  that,  after  a  period  of  preparation  and 
humiliation.  He  offered  Himself  as  a  sacrifice,  and  finally  rising 
from  the  dead  ascended  into  Heaven,  where,  from  the  throne  of 
Divine  Power,  He  pursues  a  mediatorial  ministry  as  Redeemer. 
We  do  not  recapitulate  these  beliefs  in  any  dogmatic  manner; 
our  purpose  is  historical — to  review  the  primitive  faith  that  in- 
spired the  writing  of  the  Gospels.  Of  this  faith  Harnack  writes : 
"  On  the  one  hand,  it  was  so  simple  that  it  could  be  summed  up 
in  a  few  brief  sentences,  and  understood  in  a  single  crisis  of  the 
inner  life.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  so  versatile  and  rich  that 
it  vivified  all  thought  and  stimulated  every  emotion."  ^     To  this 

^  The  Expansion  of  Christianity  in  the  First  Three  Centuries,  Moffatt's 
trans. 


12  Introduction 

it  must  be  added  that  the  first  Christians  also  believed  that 
Christ  Jesus  would  shortly  return  in  apocalyptic  splendour ;  that, 
in  preparation  for  this  consummation,  the  glorified  Christ  was 
calling  men  to  be  heirs  of  salvation,  and  by  dwelling  within  their 
spirits  He  was  constituting  them  into  an  ecclesia.  This  faith 
could  not  be  dissolved  by  philosophic  speculation ;  it  became  the 
root  of  a  new  social-ethic,  which  is  "  both  individualistic  and 
socialistic."  Its  two  watchwords  were  repentance  and  faith, 
signifying  man's  detachment  from  the  "  world  "  and  his  attach- 
ment to  God.  Further,  the  rule  and  pattern  of  the  Christian 
life  consisted,  for  the  most  part,  in  apostolic  remembrances  of  the 
conduct  and  teaching  of  Jesus.  It  is  an  historic  fact  that  the 
propaganda  of  this  new  faith  resulted  in  the  regeneration  of  a 
great  part  of  the  human  race.  The  realization  of  these  move- 
ments of  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  gave  birth  to  the  impulse  to  collect, 
sift  and  edit  all  authentic  memories  of  the  wondrous  ministry 
that  lay  behind  these  phenomena. 

4.  To  those  who  are  accustomed  to  set  the  "  simple  Gospels  " 
in  contrast  with  the  dogmatic  teachings  of  the  Epistles,  it  will 
seem  paradoxical  to  attribute  a  formative  influence  upon  the 
Gospels  to  St.  Paul :  yet,  while  the  passing  fashion  of  thought 
may  depreciate  the  spiritual  value  of  the  Pauline  writings  and 
deprecate  their  masterful  influence  upon  the  Church,  history 
affirms  that  this  gifted  and  earnest  apostle  was  the  first  to  present 
the  faith  in  Jesus  as  a  Universal  Religion.  St.  Paul's  exposition 
of  the  mind  of  Christ  and  of  the  world-wide  significance  of 
Redemption  made  the  Gospels  necessary,  and  we  cannot  but  wish 
that  he  had  been  one  of  the  Twelve.  His  epistles  are  often 
described  as  scholastic  and  theological,  remote  in  theme  and 
treatment  from  the  personal  piety  of  Jesus.  A  brief  summary 
of  St.  Paul's  allusions  to  Christ,  however,  acts  as  a  corrective 
of  this  misapprehension,  and  shows  that  he  was  not  indifferent 
to  the  actual  history  of  Jesus.  The  twenty  years  that  elapsed 
between  the  reputed  Resurrection  and  the  beginning  of  the  literary 
activity  that  created  the  New  Testament  were  abridged  by  an 
ardent  evangelism  based  upon  the  facts  of  Christ's  ministry. 
In  order  to  illustrate  the  relationship  of  the  Epistles  to  the 
Gospels,  we  may  select  the  letter  to  the  Galatians,  which,  by 
reason  of  its  dogmatic  and  controversial  character,  forms  an 
antithesis  to  the  lucid,  sublime  simplicity  of  the  Synoptics.    This 


The  Faith  Behind  the  Gospels  13 

Pauline  tract  on  Christian  Liberty  presupposes  a  generation  of 
evangelical  activity,  while  it  represents  the  new  problems  of  a 
subsequent  age  (53  a.d.)  ;  in  its  record  of  St.  Paul's  visit  to 
Jerusalem,  it  carries  us  up  the  stream  to  within  five  years  of 
Christ's  Crucifixion  (34  a.d.),  and  relates  how  the  Apostle  had 
personal  intercourse  with  James,  Cephas  and  John.  These  three 
men  carried  in  their  memories  the  fullest  knowledge  of  the  Min- 
istry of  Jesus.  The  facts  of  those  three  memorable  years  had 
been  burnt  into  their  lives,  and  could  not  be  erased  in  half  a 
decade;  the  acts,  words  and  looks  of  the  Master  were  still  fresh 
in  their  minds,  and  as  they  conversed  with  St.  Paul  their  reminis- 
cences formed  their  theme  and  matter.  This  little  concrete  fact 
of  the  Apostle's  experience  imparts  great  cogency  and  convinc- 
ingness to  every  allusion  he  makes  in  his  letters  to  the  historic 
Jesus. 

5.  While  Jewish,  Greek  and  Latin  influences  beat  in  upon  the 
new  religion,  and  helped  to  fashion  its  external  form,  there  was 
at  the  heart  of  it  a  primitive  deposit  of  apostolic  memories  of 
Jesus  which  constituted  its  central,  living  cell.  The  environment 
explains  nothing  until  assumption  is  made  of  the  presence  of  a 
mysterious  life-force.  At  the  heart  of  the  Primitive  Church 
there  wrought  the  faith  in  Jesus — a  new  dynamic,  effectual  alike 
as  an  ethic  and  as  a  pure  theosophy.  A  few  examples  culled 
from  the  great  authentic  writings  of  St.  Paul  will  justify  this 
postulate.  The  address  to  the  community  "in  God,"  in  the 
earliest  epistle  to  the  Thessalonians  (c.  51  a.d.)  arrests  our 
attention  by  its  remarkable  coordination  of  the  name  of  Jesus 
with  the  name  of  the  Father.  That  a  strict  Jew  should  collocate 
these  names  without  fear  of  infringing  the  rigorous  monotheism 
of  his  race — and  he  a  writer  of  great  dialectical  skill  and  specu- 
lative insight — is  a  phenomenon  that  attests  the  boundless  in- 
fluence of  Jesus.  Had  some  Greek  author  associated  Jesus  with 
the  Deity,  our  surprise  would  have  been  less ;  but  that  this  erudite 
Jew,  who  had  learnt  of  the  Man  of  Nazareth  from  the  Galilean 
fishermen,  should  not  shrink  from  linking  with  the  Godhead 
One  who,  a  few  years  before,  had  been  crucified  as  a  malefactor — 
this,  indeed,  is  an  astonishing  tribute  to  the  greatness  of  Jesus. 
Further,  it  is  evident  that  the  Apostle  did  not  leave  his  converts 
at  Thessalonica  without  adequate  instruction  concerning  the  Man 
whom  he  ranks  with  God:  he  writes  to  them  as  persons  fully 


14  Introduction 

conversant  with  the  Divine  pattern  given  by  Jesus,  and  as  those 
who  wait  for  the  Son  of  the  Hving  and  real  God  from  Heaven, 
"  whom  He  raised  from  the  dead,  Jesus  our  rescuer  from  the 
wrath  to  come."  And  since  St.  Paul  also  quotes  "  a  word  of  the 
Lord  "  (iv.  17)  for  confirmation  of  his  own  teaching  about  the 
second  advent,  it  may  be  inferred  that  he  was  acquainted  with 
the  disciples'  accounts  of  the  logia  of  Jesus.  Between  the  epistles 
to  the  Thessalonians  and  the  great  classic  letters  addressed  to 
Galatia  and  Rome,  there  is  no  doctrinal  discrepancy.  "  God 
appointed  us  not  to  wrath,  but  to  possess  salvation  through  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  died  for  us  that,  whether  we  wake  or 
sleep,  we  should  live  along  with  Him."  It  is  relevant  to  our 
purpose  to  note  that  the  ethical  echoes  of  Jesus  in  the  Pauline 
epistles  are  both  numerous  and  important,  although  to  trace  them 
here  would  take  us  too  far  afield.  When  the  Apostle  exhorts  his 
readers  to  "  stand  firm  and  hold  to  the  traditions  that  you  have 
been  taught  by  word  or  by  letter  from  us,"  there  is  reason  to 
suppose  that  the  body  of  apostolic  teaching  referred  to  was 
constituted  by  the  accepted  accounts  of  Jesus  Christ. 

6.  Since  it  is  of  great  importance  that  the  gap  between  the 
close  of  Christ's  early  ministry  and  the  writing  of  the  Gospels 
be  filled,  we  may  pass  from  the  traces  of  St.  Paul's  knowledge 
of  the  traditions  and  the  "  law  of  Christ  "  back  to  the  crisis  of 
the  Apostle's  inner  life  when  the  Lord  from  Heaven  subdued 
his  fierce  enmity  and  laid  upon  him  the  obligation  to  be  a  mis- 
sionary. Lord  Lyttleton  affirmed  that  the  "  conversion  and 
apostleship  of  St.  Paul  alone,  duly  considered,  is  of  itself  a 
demonstration  sufficient  to  prove  Christianity  to  be  a  divine  reve- 
lation." The  latest  calculation  of  this  event  supposes  it  to  have 
happened  within  six  or  seven  years  of  the  Crucifixion,  but  prob- 
ably it  ought  to  be  placed  within  eighteen  months  of  that  event; 
and  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  so  great  an  authority  as  Harnack 
places  it  in  the  same  year  as  the  Crucifixion.  This  general 
recognition  of  the  early  date  of  St.  Paul's  conversion  gives  added 
weight  to  what  is  said  as  to  the  substantial  trustworthiness  of 
apostolic  traditions  about  the  Ministry  of  Jesus.  But  our  em- 
phasis is  now  to  fall  upon  the  historic  fact  that  Jesus  absolutely 
mastered  the  potent  personality  of  St.  Paul — that  is  to  say, 
henceforth  the  Apostle  exulted  in  being  the  bondslave  of  Christ 
Jesus.     So  absolute  became  the  sway  of  Christ  over  St.  Paul's 


The  Faith  Behind  the  Gospels  15 

mind,  that  his  very  life  was  merged  in  the  experiences  of  Jesus : 
the  Apostle  claimed  to  have  died  with  Christ,  to  have  been  raised 
with  Him;  and  out  of  this  mystical  subjugation  emerged  a  will 
of  tremendous  force,  an  intellectual  greatness  of  the  highest 
type,  and  a  rare  spiritual  enthusiasm.  By  his  own  confession, 
we  learn  that  the  mainspring  of  his  thought,  emotion  and  activity 
was  Christ  in  him.  The  mind  of  St.  Paul  became  the  mirror 
of  Jesus  Christ.  The  ground  of  the  Apostle's  appeal  to  the 
Corinthians  "  was  the  gentleness  and  forbearance  of  Christ " ; 
the  formula  of  adjuration  used  by  him  was,  "  As  the  truth  of 
Christ  is  in  me."  He  strove  to  be  loyal  in  intellect  and  heart  to 
Christ  Jesus  while  he  boldly  assayed  the  great  task  of  interpreting 
the  mind  of  his  Lord  to  the  Greek-speaking  world.  This  apostle 
emancipated  the  infant  church  from  sectarian  and  national  limita- 
tions :  he  discerned  and  preached  the  universality  of  Christ.  The 
suspicion  that  St.  Paul  diverted  the  stream  of  Christianity,  and 
changed  a  simple  ethic  into  a  supernatural  gnosis,  is  not  borne 
out  by  the  Gospels.  If  it  is  true  that  the  Church  has  been 
dominated  by  Paulinism,  it  is  likewise  true  that  the  mind  of 
St.  Paul  can  only  be  explained  through  the  Historic  Christ. 
The  modern  representation  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus  and  Paul 
as  antagonistic  is  false.  The  Gospels  themselves  were  fashioned 
under  the  influence  of  the  Apostolic  Faith;  but  Paulinism  was 
created  by  the  facts  which  are  recorded  in  the  Gospels.  While 
the  Epistles  come  first  as  literature,  the  Gospels  possess  historical 
priority.  The  writers  of  the  New  Testament  wrote  with  their 
eyes  fastened  upon  Jesus.  They  occupied  different  points  of 
view;  they  brought  varied  qualifications  to  their  task,  and  yet, 
from  their  twenty-seven  books,  there  emerges  one,  vital,  con- 
sistent representation  of  Jesus  as  the  Incarnate  Son  of  God. 


BOOK  I 

THE  DAYS  OF  THE  PREPARATION 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  PRESUPPOSED  IDEAL  OF  THE  GOSPELS 

I.  There  can  be  no  authentic  biography  of  Jesus;  the  mate- 
rials for  writing  it  do  not  exist.  The  Gospels,  however  historic, 
do  not  attempt  to  give  us  scientific  history ;  they  are  transpar- 
ently dogmatic,  written  to  justify  and  propagate  an  Ideal  of 
Jesus  which  constituted  the  inmost  cell  of  the  Christian  Church 
and  the  protoplasm  of  a  new  theology.  The  prosaic  disciples  of 
Jesus  did  not  despise  history,  but  they  treated  the  external 
history  of  their  Master  as  the  shell  of  a  Divine  Revelation;  the 
bare  facts  of  the  ministry  of  Christ  were  of  value  in  their  eyes 
simply  because  they  shadowed  forth  the  personality  of  their 
Lord.  If  the  suspicion  hovers  over  our  minds  that  the  modern 
conception  of  Jesus  is  the  product  of  philosophic  speculation  and 
romanticism,  we  shall  fail  utterly  to  appreciate  the  Gospels;  for 
these  writings  of  the  first  and  second  century  are  saturated  with 
a  lofty,  catholic  idealism  which  originated  in  the  oral  reports  of 
Jesus.  Those  who  adventure  to  set  forth  the  origins  of  Chris- 
tianity have  to  steer  cautiously  between  the  Scylla  of  an  idealism 
which  has  no  pragmatic  base  and  the  Charybdis  of  a  naturalism 
which  discredits  all  transcendence  of  the  Spiritual.  When  we 
succeed  in  escaping  in  some  measure  the  preconceptions  and 
prejudices  of  our  modern  time,  and  turn  with  open,  frank,  dis- 
cerning eyes  to  the  Faith  that  lay  behind  the  Gospels  and  the 
ideas  diffused  through  their  pages,  a  sentiment  of  wonder  grows 
in  our  minds  that  the  accumulated  wealth  of  philosophy,  poetry 
and  history  extending  over  nineteen  centuries  has  not  carried  us 
one  step  higher  than  the  Pauline  and  Johannine  conception  of 
Jesus  Christ.  There  are  scholars  who  suspect  that  this  ideal 
is  semi-mythical,  and  that  it  arose  from  the  romantic  exaggera- 
tions of  hero-worship ;  they  believe  that,  when  historical  criti- 
cism has  swept  away  the  Aberglaube  and  dogmatic  incrustations 
and  got  down  to  the  natural  truth  of  the  Gospels,  there  will 
remain  only  the  figure  of  a  good  man,  who  has  been  strangely 
overrated.     The  worth  of  this  judgement  must  be  gauged  at 

19 


20  The  Days  of  the  Preparation 

the  conclusion  of  a  critical  study  of  the  Gospels;  we  make  no 
valuation  of  it  at  this  point.  But  we  do  protest  against  the 
method  of  adopting  this  suspicion  at  the  beginning  as  a  canon 
of  criticism,  and  proceeding  to  cut  down  the  Figure  of  Jesus  to 
the  proportions  of  an  ordinary  man.  Whatever  may  be  the  final 
results  of  our  studies  in  the  hfe  of  Jesus,  it  is  demanded  of  us 
to  give  an  early  recognition  of  the  general  Ideal  of  Jesus  Christ 
which  was  the  dogmatic  presupposition  and  final  cause  of  the 
entire  New  Testament.  Even  were  this  explicit  acknowledge- 
ment of  the  dominating  and  formative  influence  of  the  Christ- 
ideal  upon  the  Gospels  to  result  in  a  lessened  belief  in  their 
historicity,  we  should  nevertheless  be  bound  to  make  it,  as  for 
us  it  is  the  key  of  the  New  Testament.  We  do  not,  however, 
assent  to  the  position  that  the  presence  of  dogmatism  in  the  minds 
of  those  who  selected  and  propagated  the  accounts  of  Jesus' 
work  undermines  all  historical  reliability  in  the  traditions  trans- 
mitted through  them. 

2.  One  of  the  dangers  of  our  age,  both  in  industry  and 
scholarship,  is  over-specialization  and  the  corresponding  loss  of 
balance  and  proportion  in  the  minds  of  men.  Whether  by  an 
unconscious  suppression  of  facts  through  mental  preoccupation, 
or  through  absorption  in  certain  aspects  of  the  Gospels  and  the 
exclusion  of  others,  the  fair  vision  of  the  whole  is  often  lost 
and  the  judgement  relatively  impaired.  There  is  often  more 
justice  in  naive  impressionism  than  in  a  partial  criticism.  In 
making  an  estimate  of  a  character,  a  book,  or  a  picture,  attention 
to  the  whole  ought  to  precede  the  special  observation  of  parts ; 
the  tout  ensemble  must  be  apprehended  before  the  value  of  de- 
tails and  special  features  can  possibly  be  seen.  The  realm  of 
music  affords  an  illustration  of  this  truth— a  judgement  based 
merely  upon  the  ear's  appreciation  of  passing  sounds^  is  of  little 
worth ;  the  true  musician  either  possesses  a  prophetic  intuition  of 
the  whole  or  acquires  a  first  general  impression  of  the  work  into 
which  the  phrases,  movements  and  symphonies  must  be  integrated. 
If  he  cannot  hold  all  the  parts  together  in  his  mind,  he  will 
be  unable  to  judge  them  separately.  This  principle  applies  to 
the  criticism  of  the  Gospels ;  the  parts  must  be  viewed  through 
the  whole,  and  in  its  turn  the  view  of  the  whole  will  be  re- 
constituted by  increased  knowledge  of  all  the  parts.  Now  the 
attempt  to  gain  a  general  impression  of  the  whole  scope  of  the 


The  Presupposed  Ideal  of  the  Gospels         21 

Gospels,  brings  us  back  upon  the  Christ-ideal  which  dominates 
them  throughout;  there  are  not  four  different  and  inconsistent 
Christs,  but  one  Ideal  created  by  the  character  of  Jesus.  This 
is  the  unifying  conception  of  all  the  heterogeneous  traditions 
that  have  been  compiled  by  the  four  evangelists.  The  resultant 
unity  of  the  general  impression  of  Jesus  is  due  neither  to  the 
collusion  of  the  writers  nor  to  the  suppression  of  their  indi- 
vidualities; and  it  does  not  depend  upon  the  inerrancy  of  their 
records,  nor  upon  any  mechanical  harmony  or  correspondence. 
It  is  possible  to  lose  one's  way  amid  the  minutiae  of  modern 
research — to  fail  to  see  the  wood  because  of  the  trees ;  but  if 
we  approach  the  Gospels  with  honest  impressionism,  although 
the  diversities,  discrepancies  and  graver  defects  of  these  books 
are  known,  yet  the  imagination  is  filled  with  the  Figure  of  one 
great  majestic  Man.  The  broken  lines  and  seams  are  as  the 
leaded  frame  of  a  lattice  window  through  which  looks  out  upon 
us  the  calm,  noble,  wonderful  face  of  Jesus.  The  simple  faith 
of  the  uncritical  multitudes  all  through  the  last  nineteen  cen- 
turies assures  us  of  the  resultant  unity  of  the  Gospels;  there 
is  no  irreconcilable  disagreement  between  St.  Mark's  realistic 
sketch  of  the  Carpenter  of  Nazareth  and  St.  Luke's  gracious 
idealized  portrait  of  the  Lord  and  Saviour;  between  the  Master 
depicted  in  the  framework  of  Jewish  Messianism  by  St.  Matthew 
and  the  Son  of  God  described  by  a  fourth  evangelist  in  the 
gentle  radiance  of  the  Logos  philosophy. 

3.  That  ruthless  criticism,  which  reduces  these  four  books 
to  a  tangle  of  uncertain  traditions  derived  from  obscure  and 
unknown  sources,  only  increases  our  wonder  at  this  unified 
Ideal.  An  apprehension  of  the  nature  of  this  resultant  unity 
of  the  Gospels — a  preliminary  contemplation  of  this  idealized 
synthesis  of  all  the  records  in  the  one  Christ-character — orientates 
the  mind  to  the  apostolic  point  of  view,  and  aids  in  an  under- 
standing of  the  purpose  of  these  writings.  Those  who  are  so 
enamoured  of  the  purely  inductive  method  as  to  protest  against 
this  way  of  beginning  our  study  of  the  Ministry  of  Jesus,  should 
remember  that  not  only  must  the  novice  always  begin  by  a 
tentative  acceptance  of  axioms  and  principles,  but  also  that  most 
discoveries  and  advances  have  been  preceded  by  foreglances 
and  anticipations  of  unities  and  ideals  which  to  mere  dry-as-dust 
pedants  must  have  seemed  poetic  and  fanciful.     The  seer  an- 


22  The  Days  of  the  Preparation 

ticipates  the  goal  which  can  only  be  attained  afterwards  by 
slow  pedestrian  efforts  and  much  weariness.  At  the  very  be- 
ginning of  New  Testament  research,  it  is  necessary  to  reach 
a  hand  through  the  years  and  conceive  some  general  idea  of 
the  whole.  The  constitutive  value  of  this  Christ-ideal  is  ad- 
mirably illustrated  by  the  testimony  of  a  Christian  convert  in 
China,  who  stated  that  at  first  the  doctrines  of  our  religion  had 
appeared  to  him  as  the  outlines  of  vague  dreams  and  cloudy 
shadows,  but  when  once  he  gained  a  general  knowledge  of 
the  Christ,  every  incident  and  detail  of  the  Gospels  fell  into  its 
place  and  became  luminously  intelligible.  The  Gospels  must  be 
judged  by  this  Ideal,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  this  Ideal  must  be 
continually  corrected  and  amplified,  and  must  grow  in  definite- 
ness  and  acquire  ever  new  wealth  of  content,  by  persistent  in- 
vestigation of  the  records  of  the  Ministry  of  Jesus.  This  double 
play  of  the  mind  ought  to  find  scope  in  all  our  studies  of  the 
Gospels  and  should  help  us  in  forming  a  fresh  synthesis  of  all 
the  parts.  We  call  attention  to  this  presupposed  Ideal  of  the 
Gospels,  not  for  dogmatic  purposes,  but  that  we  may  use  it  as 
a  part  of  our  apparatus  criticiis  in  the  subsequent  examination 
of  the  records  of  Christ's  Ministry;  and  if  in  our  course  we 
should  find  this  Ideal  unverifiable,  we  shall  not  hesitate  to 
abandon  it. 

4.  The  Christ-ideal,  as  the  name  itself  implies,  is  a  sub- 
limation of  the  Jewish  Messianic  hope  which  through  the  cen- 
turies has  assumed  many  protean  forms.  This  idea  that  Jesus 
was  the  Messiah  was  the  central  cell  and  morphological  unit 
of  the  apostolic  faith;  in  St.  Paul's  language  he  was  the  Second 
Adam,  a  title  justified  by  the  claim  of  Jesus  to  be  the  Son  of 
Man.  History  and  faith  are  blended  in  this  conception  of  Christ 
— the  earthly  history  made  the  faith  possible ;  but  the  Ideal  could 
only  have  been  fashioned  by  abstraction  from  mundane  details, 
and  a  concentrated  attention  upon  the  inner  life  of  Jesus.  The 
belief  in  the  Resurrection  of  Jesus  gave  the  standpoint  which 
made  such  faith-vision  feasible.  Such  was  the  insight  of  the 
Apostles,  that  even  while  they  used  the  traditions  of  Jesus'  Min- 
istry to  illustrate  their  evangelic  thesis,  they  virtually  swept  aside 
the  mere  accidents  of  time  and  place  and  seized  upon  the  spiritual 
personality  of  Jesus  as  a  veritable  revelation  of  God.  Ancient 
and    modern    speculation   are   at   one   in   believing   that   living 


The  Presupposed  Ideal  of  the  Gospels         23 

beings  disclose  their  true  nature  in  the  end  of  their  development. 
The  final  cause,  last  in  the  order  of  time,  is  first  in  the  order 
of  Nature.  The  evolutionist  of  the  twentieth  century  agrees 
with  the  Aristotelian  principle  that  the  true  nature  of  a  thing 
can  be  understood  only  when  the  development  is  ended.  However 
interesting  the  beginnings  may  be,  the  real  purpose  of  an  organ- 
ism must  be  sought  in  its  fullest  and  maturest  phase.  He  only 
can  understand  what  was  implicit  in  the  beginning  who  has  seen 
and  felt  what  became  explicit  in  the  finished  course.  Thus,  until 
we  have  stood  at  the  Cross  and  beheld  Jesus  in  death — nay, 
until  we  have  pondered  the  mystery  of  His  reputed  Resurrection 
— we  are  not  competent  to  judge  of  His  birth.  The  experience 
of  many  a  student  of  the  Gospels  is  that  the  mind  is  forced  to 
return  again  and  again  upon  its  own  postulates  and  assumptions 
in  order  to  modify  them  by  its  maturest  cognitions.  H  one 
adopts  a  naturalistic  standpoint,  he  is  soon  forced  into  the 
dilemma  of  abandoning  either  his  own  preconceptions  or  the 
Gospels. 

5.  The  Christ-ideal  is  the  revelation  of  the  Perfect  Man,  after 
whom  all  races  have  instinctively  inquired.  Confucius  had  given 
the  Chinese  his  conception  of  the  Sage  and  the  Princely  Man, 
portraying  the  ideal  harmonies  of  character :  Plato  had  also 
described,  with  almost  prophetic  insight,  the  Good-Man  and  the 
fate  which  would  befall  him  in  a  world  such  as  ours ;  and  in 
our  own  Elizabethan  age  the  poet  Spenser  pierced  to  the  heart 
of  knight-errantry  and  set  forth  for  his  generation  a  type  of 
fine  English  manhood,  which,  however,  "  with  all  that  was  ad- 
mirable and  attractive  in  it,  had  still  much  of  boyish  incom- 
pleteness and  roughness.  It  had  noble  aims,  it  had  generosity, 
it  had  loyalty,  it  had  a  very  real  reverence  for  purity  and  re- 
ligion ;  but  it  was  young  in  experience  of  a  new  world,  it  was 
wanting  in  self-mastery,  it  was  often  pedantic  and  self-conceited, 
it  was  an  easier  prey  than  it  ought  to  have  been  to  discreditable 
temptations."  ^  We  might  enumerate  other  ideals  which  have 
been  flung  forth  from  the  poetic  and  religious  imagination;  but 
they  must  be  acknowledged  to  fall  short  of  the  length,  breadth 
and  depth  of  the  Christ-ideal.  The  Son  of  Man  embodies  the 
complete  consciousness  of  Perfect  Manhood;  this  Ideal  Brother 
identified  Himself  in  all  essential  experience  with  His  brethren; 
^  Dean  Church,  Life  of  Spenser. 


24  The  Days  of  the  Preparation 

He  confessed  ignorance  of  times  and  seasons;  He  evinced  a 
transitory  uncertainty  of  what  the  Father's  will  might  be  as  He 
approached  the  hour  of  His  tragedy  in  His  final  struggle  with 
evil;  He  was  tempted — tempted  in  all  things,  as  we  are;  He  re- 
sorted to  prayer  as  His  protection  and  inspiration;  He  remained 
without  sin — innocent,  holy  and  undefiled.  There  is  neither  nar- 
rowness nor  looseness,  neither  pedantry  nor  imperfection  in  this 
Pattern  Man  ;  the  Apostles  described  Him  as  the  Second  Adam  and 
Representative  of  the  human  race,  and  as  the  Begetter  of  a 
new  type  of  manhood  in  the  world,  St.  Paul  treated  this  Ideal 
as  the  formative  principle  of  personal  religion  and  the  constitu- 
tive bond  of  the  Christian  Fellowship :  "  Let  this  mind  be  in 
you,  which  was  also  in  Christ  Jesus."  As  our  minds  master 
this  Ideal,  they  are  subdued  by  its  inherent  beauty  and  grandeur ; 
they  are  drawn  out  of  the  vortex  of  animal  impulse  and  passion, 
and  transformed  by  an  inward  power  of  new  life.  Amid  all 
uncertainties  and  mutations  of  thought,  the  Christ-ideal  abides 
as  the  mind's  permanent  possession :  it  exists  as  a  real  fact 
in  our  world  of  thought ;  upon  it  the  mind  may  build,  as  upon 
a  rock,  in  the  midst  of  the  restless  sea  of  speculation. 

6.  This  Christ-ideal,  however,  cannot  be  attributed  to  the 
originating  power  of  the  human  imagination ;  the  Platonic  idea 
of  "  the  Good,"  embodying  the  essences  of  Beauty,  Symmetry 
and  Truth,  sprang  from  the  idealizing  faculty  in  the  poet-philos- 
opher's mind;  but  the  Second  Adam,  or  Son  of  Man,  is  the 
Ideal  of  one  who  actually  lived  and  wrought  in  our  human  world. 
Whatever  influence  the  mythicizing  tendency  exerted  in  its 
formation,  the  Christ-ideal  can  never  be  looked  upon  as  the 
pure  product  of  legend.  Some  have  supposed  that,  Athena-like, 
the  Christ-ideal  sprang  fully  armed  from  the  brain  of  St.  Paul ; 
but  such  a  suggestion  is  irrelevant  to  the  facts  of  history.  There 
is  no  sufficient  hiatus  left  in  the  post-Crucifixion  days  to  account 
for  a  mythical  Christ;  the  history  is  too  closely  linked  for  any 
facile  interpolation  of  a  mere  imagination,  however  splendid. 
We  are  not  dealing  with  some  pale,  vague,  bloodless  creation 
of  human  fancy;  for  this  presupposed  Ideal  of  the  Gospels  is 
rooted  in  the  soil  of  human  history.  In  writing  thus  of  the 
Christ-ideal  we  are  neither  yielding  to  the  pressure  of  senti- 
mental fancy  nor  indulging  in  the  extravagant  phantasies  of 
history.     Mere  idealism  has,  again  and  again,  proved  its  impo- 


The  Presupposed  Ideal  of  the  Gospels         25 

tence  in  the  battlefield  of  life — ineffectual  as  a  force  levelled 
against  the  fierce  passions;  therefore  the  highest  ideal  to  com- 
mand our  heart's  allegiance  must  be  based  upon  some  historical 
realization.  When  Arthur's  knights  set  out  in  quest  of  the 
Holy  Grail,  they  unwittingly  fought  against  the  interests  of 
their  own  order,  and  made  it  impossible  to  attain  to  the  king's 
beneficent  ideal.  The  inspiration  of  the  Christ-ideal  is  of  per- 
manent potency  because  it  is  based  on  the  faith  that  the  Logos 
had  been  made  flesh.  In  the  account  of  St.  Paul's  heavenly 
vision  the  glorified  Christ  affirms,  "  I  am  Jesus,  whom  thou 
persecutest."  However  imperceptible  to  our  gross  vision  the 
subtle  stages  of  transition  through  which  the  impression  made 
by  Jesus  passed  before  it  could  be  presented  as  the  Ideal  and 
climactic  Revelation  of  God  to  man,  we  are  assured  that  the 
actual  historic  Jesus  gave  the  originating  impulse  to  this  faith, 
that  the  impression  He  made  upon  the  hearts  and  minds  of  His 
intimate  followers  constituted  its  real  nucleus.  But,  while  a  par- 
tial account  of  the  rise  of  the  Christ-ideal  is  the  simple  one  that 
Jesus  created  it  by  His  ministry  in  Galilee  and  Judea,  to  this 
we  must  add  the  frank  recognition  of  an  influential  mingling 
of  fact  and  opinion  in  the  colouring  medium  and  bias  of  the 
general  mind  of  the  Church.  Such  an  admixture  was  inevitable, 
and  must  have  begun  at  the  first  disciple's  response  to  the  call 
of  Jesus ;  and  when  He  was  withdrawn,  the  memory  of  what  He 
had  been  and  the  faith  in  a  continuing  relationship  with  Him 
in  His  glory  wrought  together  in  the  matrix  of  apostolic  thought. 
How  much  was  due  to  historic  fact  and  how  much  was  con- 
tributed by  subjective  conditions,  may  not  now  be  determinable; 
we  but  know  that  the  Christ-ideal  was  rooted  in  facts  of  his- 
tory, and  that  the  oral  tradition  of  the  work  and  teaching  of 
Jesus  passed  into  Scripture  before  the  glow  and  throb  of  actual 
life  had  died  away.  The  Gospels  visualize  Jesus  and  place  us 
in  the  maelstrom  of  antagonism  in  which  He  lived;  we  see  the 
forces  that  overthrew  Him,  and  were  afterwards  defeated  by 
their  own  success.  The  idealization  which  necessarily  followed 
the  belief  in  His  Resurrection  has  not  so  utterly  transformed  the 
historic  reflection  of  the  Person  of  Jesus  as  to  make  the  Gospels 
unhistorical.  The  perspective  was  widened  from  the  arena  of 
Judaism  to  the  theatre  of  the  cosmos  by  St.  Paul  and  St.  John ; 
but  the  central  Figure  is  historic,  and  can  be  relied  upon  as  a 
true   delineation   of  the  manner   of   life  pursued  by  Jesus   of 


26  The  Days  of  the  Preparation 

Nazareth.  Instead  of  undermining  the  historicity  of  our  Gos- 
pels, the  criticism  of  the  past  fifty  years  has  served  to  make 
their  honesty,  reaHsm,  and  credibiUty  more  apparent  than  ever 
before. 

7.  Our  identification  of  the  Christ-ideal  presupposed  in  the 
Gospels  with  the  historic  Jesus  whose  impression  upon  the 
disciples'  minds  was  transmuted  through  an  experience  of  His 
abiding  influence,  now  leads  us  to  inquire  what  it  was  in  His 
ministry  that  prompted  such  idealization.  The  Christian  re- 
ligion was  not  produced  in  a  vacuum  by  the  isolated  action  of 
Jesus;  enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  the  Christ-ideal  sprang 
in  part  out  of  the  reaction  of  other  minds  upon  the  impression 
of  Jesus.  Naturalism  strives  to  account  for  Christianity  by  rep- 
resenting it  as  the  confluence  of  many  streams,  attributing  it  to 
such  varied  conditions  as  the  supremacy  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
the  universal  peace  of  that  time,  the  general  diffusion  of  Greek 
ideas  and  language,  and  the  mingling  of  all  the  varied  thoughts 
and  influences  of  East  and  West.  Historians  recognize  that  it 
was  the  end  of  one  age  and  the  beginning  of  another;  that  the 
fulness  of  time  had  come.  But  all  these  intellectual  forces — the 
crasis  of  East  and  West,  the  intermingling  of  the  ethical  ideas 
of  Judaism,  Greece  and  Rome,  and  the  upspringing  of  the  new 
humanity  such  as  is  betrayed  by  Virgil — fail  to  explain  the  rise 
of  the  Christian  religion.  There  was  needed  the  action  of  some 
mighty  personality  in  history  to  fuse  these  forces  into  a  living 
whole,  and  to  fire  the  Ideal  with  enthusiasm  for  holiness.  Such 
was  the  achievement  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth;  He  perfected  the 
essential  ideal  of  all  religions;  He  focused  and  embodied  the 
Light  which  lighteth  every  man;  and,  by  so  doing.  He  himself 
became  the  historic  conscience  of  the  race.  Naturalism  affirms 
that  Jesus  was  the  Child  of  His  age,  country  and  race ;  but  when 
we  examine  the  Ideal  presupposed  in  the  Gospels  and  the  narra- 
tives they  offer  to  verify  that  Ideal,  we  come  face  to  face  with 
an  element  of  transcendence  in  His  character.  The  impression 
He  made  cannot  be  treated  as  due  to  ordinary  hero-worship; 
in  order  to  fit  Him  mto  the  procrustean  frame  of  Naturalism, 
we  must  first  eliminate  some  of  the  characteristic  features  of 
His  self -consciousness.  Having  sought  to  measure  the  forces 
of  heredity  and  race-culture  together  with  the  social,  political 
and  religious  environment  of  Jesus,  we  are  led  to  attribute  to 


The  Presupposed  Ideal  of  the  Gospels         27 

Him  a  mastery  and  moral  authority  able  to  assimilate  and  mould 
these  mingled  influences  to  His  own  victorious  Ego.  There 
is  no  escape  from  this  idea  of  transcendence  in  the  character  of 
Jesus,  if  we  are  to  treat  the  Christ-ideal  fairly;  we  are  drawn 
into  the  vortex  of  mystery  and  confronted  by  the  fact  that  Jesus 
made  the  impression  He  did  upon  the  minds  of  the  Apostles, 
in  part  at  least,  by  His  amazing  egotism.  Without  involving 
ourselves  prematurely  in  dogmatic  definitions,  we  may  acknowl- 
edge that  one  of  the  profoundest  characteristics  of  Jesus  was 
His  consciousness  of  a  filial  relationship  with  God.  It  might 
have  been  imagined  that  the  unique  Divine  Sonship  belonged 
exclusively  to  the  Christ-ideal  and  was  due  to  the  idealization 
which  had  gone  on ;  but  from  the  Gospels  we  learn  that  this  was 
no  posthumous  title,  since  Jesus  Himself  was  accused,  during 
His  earthly  ministry,  of  saying:  "  I  am  the  Son  of  God."  ^  Even 
Keim  accepts  as  authentic  in  St.  Matthew  the  Johannine  aerolite, 
"  No  Man  knoweth  the  Father  save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whom- 
soever the  Son  willeth  to  reveal  Him."  And  it  remains  a  matter 
of  historic  fact  that  Jesus  was  condemned  by  the  high-priest  as 
worthy  of  death,  because  He  made  God  His  own  Father.  Such 
Divine  consciousness  as  Jesus  realized  may  have  been  due  to 
the  infusion  of  the  Spirit  of  God  into  His  soul  in  the  experiences 
of  His  moral  life — that  is,  we  may  ascribe  to  it  an  ethical  rather 
than  a  metaphysical  value ;  but  we  wish  to  point  out,  as  most 
important  in  any  consideration  of  the  Christ-ideal,  that  the  title 
of  the  Son  of  God  was  not  the  result  of  the  disclosure  of  His 
real  nature  by  the  Resurrection;  it  was  claimed  repeatedly  by 
Jesus  in  the  days  of  His  flesh. 

8.  The  duality  of  this  Christ-ideal  is  customarily  described 
in  the  epithet,  "  The  Divine  Humanity  of  Jesus  " — a  characteri- 
zation that  has  the  merit  of  recognizing  that  Christ  is  at  once  the 
centre  of  both  human  and  Divine  relationship.  The  integrity 
of  manhood  was  not  impaired  in  Him,  or  He  would  cease  to  be 
the  Pattern,  or  Archetypal  Man.  Although  in  the  apostolic 
letters  the  standpoint  of  the  Resurrection  throws  the  emphasis 
necessarily  upon  the  exalted  form  of  this  glorious  Being,  the 
reality  of  His  previous  historic  and  phenomenal  existence  is 
assumed:  the  humiliation  preceded  His  Analepsis,  or  assumption 
into  Glory.  In  the  Gospels,  the  "  likeness  of  sinful  flesh  "  ^  in 
*Matt.  xxvii.  40-43.  2  Rom.  viii.  3. 


28  The  Days  of  the  Preparation 

His  earthly  state  is  accentuated  in  a  manner  which  shows  that 
He  was  born  of  a  woman  under  the  law  and  participated  in  our 
common  human  nature.  His  dissimilarity  from  us  consisted  in 
His  complete  subordination  of  all  animal  impulses  to  the  higher 
life  which  we  term  the  Spirit  of  God  in  Him.  We  fall  and  rise 
again;  our  very  lapses  make  us  feel  the  quenchless  thirst  after 
a  higher  type  of  moral  life,  but  that  of  which  we  catch  glimpses 
as  an  ideal  and  sinless  plane  of  life  is  assumed  to  have  been 
undeviatingly  realized  in  the  experience  of  Jesus.  A  yet  greater 
emphasis  falls  upon  the  reality  of  the  Divine  Spirit  in  the 
Christ-ideal — "  God's  Son,  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  who  was  made 
of  the  seed  of  David  according  to  the  flesh,  and  marked  out 
as  Son  of  God  with  power  according  to  the  Spirit  of  Holiness 
in  consequence  of  His  Resurrection  from  the  dead."  ^  That 
which  constituted  the  higher  nature  of  Jesus  and  made  Him  so 
uniquely  the  Son  of  God  was  the  indwelling  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 
The  Resurrection  itself  is  not  understood  to  have  constituted 
His  right  to  be  thought  of  as  God's  Son;  but  it  was  the  dis- 
closure of  His  nature  that  showed  Him  to  be  Divine.  In  His 
previous  fleshly  state,  He  was  the  Son  of  God  in  virtue  of  His 
perfect  Character,  but  the  glory  of  His  nature  was  hidden.  The 
Archetype  and  essential  Ideal  of  manhood  is  perfectly  embodied 
in  Christ  Jesus,  and  His  differentiation  from  us  is  that  He  lived 
in  fullest  reciprocity  with  the  Heavenly  Father  from  His  birth, 
while  we  seem  to  be  born  far  from  our  nature  and  only  attain 
unto  a  fluctuating  realization  of  it  after  varying  struggles.  The 
modern  problem  is  to  give  due  recognition  to  the  two  factors 
in  this  dualistic  ideal,  and  to  formulate  a  rational  conception  of 
the  process.  Are  we  dealing  with  a  successful  instance  of  the 
apotheosis  of  a  man,  or  with  an  incarnation  of  a  God?  Is  it 
the  humanizing  of  Deity,  or  the  deification  of  Humanity?  Is 
it  a  sonship  by  adoption,  such  as  all  believers  are  attaining  unto, 
or  of  an  eternal  nature  and  right?  The  modernist  tendency  is 
toward  simplification  by  getting  rid  of  all  dualism  and  identifying 
the  humanity  of  Jesus  with  His  divinity.  Controversies  about 
the  two  natures  are  out  of  touch  with  the  present  mood  of 
speculation;  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God  because  He  is  so  truly  the 
Son  of  Man.  There  is  an  inherent  attractiveness  in  this  con- 
ception of  the  deification  of  Jesus ;  it  seems  simpler ;  it  makes 
prominent  the  identity  between  Jesus  and  other  men;  it  brings 

^  Rom.  i.  4. 


The  Presupposed  Ideal  of  the  Gospels         29 

an  inspiration  to  all  who  receive  the  Sonship  of  grace;  and  is 
not  to  be  ruled  out  as  ipso  facto  impossible.  Probably  the 
metaphysical  problem  is  utterly  beyond  the  range  of  our  thought, 
and  it  is  well  to  lay  stress  on  the  ethical  and  religious  phases  of 
Christ's  Person  and  their  values.  At  the  same  time,  we  do 
justice  to  the  apostolic  Ideal  only  when  we  attribute  to  Christ 
a  state  of  preexistence  with  its  concomitants  of  personal  voli- 
tion and  choice;  the  New  Testament  is  full  of  the  idea  of  an 
incarnation  rather  than  of  the  conception  of  deification;  the 
anaplerosis  which  followed  the  Resurrection  was  preceded  some 
thirty  years  previously  by  a  process  of  kenosis,  or  self -emptying. 
It  may  yet  be  decided  that  the  Pauline  interpretation  of  the  pre- 
existent  Mind  of  Christ  is  a  matter  of  purely  speculative  value, 
not  possessing  the  value  of  Revelation;  that  it  is  a  question  for 
Christian  philosophy  to  determine  whether  the  preexistent  Christ 
was  Ideal  only,  or  a  Personal  Reality;  but  the  matter  of  imme- 
diate importance  and  relevance  is  that  Jesus  made  such  an  over- 
whelming impression  upon  His  followers,  that,  though  familiar 
with  all  the  details  of  His  ministry  and  the  phenomena  of  His 
human  nature,  they  came  to  believe  that  He  had  come  from  some 
higher  sphere  into  our  earthly  history  with  a  mission  to  reveal 
God  and  save  man.  For  many  minds  the  correct  attitude  toward 
this  problem  must  honestly  be  agnostic ;  many  others  will  hold 
that  the  matter  is  still  sub  judice;  to  others  again,  since  pre- 
existence seems  implied  in  the  recorded  claims  of  Jesus  and  was 
undoubtedly  a  feature  of  the  apostolic  Christ-ideal,  the  theme  will 
seem  closed  to  speculation  and  open  only  to  faith.  In  order  to 
begin  our  historical  studies  of  the  Gospels  without  hampering 
prejudices,  it  may  be  stated  that  the  process  of  deification  incurs 
all  the  difficulties  attendant  upon  the  dogma  of  the  Incarnation: 
neither  can  be  in  harmony  with  the  presuppositions  of  Natural- 
ism; and  whether  true  or  not,  the  Pauline  and  Johannine  con- 
ception of  the  Incarnation  of  a  Divine  Person  is  full  of  ethical 
and  religious  inspiration. 

9.  Whatever  modifications  may  take  place  in  the  frame-work 
of  Christian  philosophy,  the  Christ-ideal  will  live  on  with  the 
historic  Jesus  at  its  centre ;  for  it  is  a  value- judgement  of  supreme 
importance ;  it  is  pregnant  with  ethical  inspirations  in  the  personal 
piety  of  life;  it  is  a  formative  principle  in  the  growth  of  the 
Church,  and  it  will  play  an  important  part  in  the  reconstruction 


30  The  Days  of  the  Preparation 

of  religious  thought.  We  have  termed  it  "  the  pre-supposed 
Ideal  of  the  Gospels";  for  it  not  only  gives  the  standpoint 
whence  the  authors  might  compile  their  accounts  of  Jesus,  but 
it  is  the  thesis  they  set  out  to  prove  through  the  medium  of 
history.  We  think  that  no  merely  human  genius  could  have 
combined  into  one  living  whole  the  seemingly  incongruous  attri- 
butes and  experiences  narrated  in  the  Gospels,  but  believe  that 
the  Ideal  was  so  described  in  literature  because  it  was  first  real- 
ized in  Life.  Not  only  is  the  character  of  the  Divine-Humanity 
of  Christ  beyond  invention  so  that  it  became  the  Ideal  only  by 
being  a  Fact,  but  it  proves  to  be  the  light  which  gives  unity  to 
the  various  and  sometimes  discrepant  materials  of  the  Gospels. 
We  do  not  deprecate  criticism  of  the  Gospels,  though  it  be  never 
so  thorough;  at  this  stage  there  need  be  no  frantic  appeals 
to  dogmas  of  verbal  or  plenary  inspiration  in  order  to  shield  the 
Christ-ideal :  it  may  be  assumed  that  we  are  all  simply  truth- 
seekers.  But  when  criticism  has  done  its  utmost,  room  must 
be  given  for  the  exercise  of  constructive  imagination;  having 
convinced  ourselves  of  the  heterogeneity  of  the  traditions,  their 
obscure  and  often  doubtful  sources,  their  anonymous  editorship, 
we  shall  the  more  urgently  demand  a  breath  of  real  imagination, 
and  a  flash  of  historical  insight,  to  restore  the  disintegrated 
picture  of  Jesus.  "  Come  from  the  four  winds,  O  breath,  and 
breathe  upon  the  slain,  that  they  may  live."  In  the  natural 
process  of  criticism,  certain  marked  traits  of  human  nature  are 
placed  in  opposition  to  the  uniqueness  and  transcendence  of  the 
Christ-ideal ;  but,  however  often  it  may  be  disintegrated,  phoenix- 
like this  Ideal  will  rise  again  out  of  its  ashes.  Jesus  has  entered 
into  human  history  and  will  never  leave  it ;  He  has  at  least 
bequeathed  to  the  world  an  ineffaceable  Ideal  of  Himself.  One 
of  George  Eliot's  scientific  friends  once  pointed  out  that  the 
myriad  lines  and  scratches  on  an  old  mirror,  caused  by  the  care- 
less attempts  to  clean  it,  confused  and  running  across  each  other, 
would  all  appear  grouped  and  drawn  into  concentric  circles 
whenever  a  lighted  candle  were  held  close  to  the  glass.  In  like 
manner  the  radiant  light  of  the  Christ-ideal  has  been  kindled  by 
Jesus,  and  as  we  hold  this  light  the  myriad  discrepancies  and 
incoherencies  of  the  Gospels  are  drawn  into  a  new  symmetry  and 
vital  unity.  The  image  of  Christ  once  received  into  man's  mind 
becomes  the  touchstone  of  the  very  Gospels  wherein  it  is  por- 
trayed.   The  result  of  our  renewed  inquiry  into  these  Scriptures 


The  Presupposed  Ideal  of  the  Gospels         31 

will  demonstrate  that  there  is  a  real  living  Person  behind  the 
Christ-ideal,  and  hence,  however  often  dissolved,  the  Ideal  is 
recreated  by  His  abiding  inspiration.  Jesus  belongs  to  History, 
and  must  therefore  be  the  perpetual  subject  of  historical  in- 
quiry ;  but  from  the  time-form  of  the  Man  of  Nazareth  emerges 
the  Christ-ideal  that  is  eternal.  Faith's  certainty  of  this  Ideal 
emancipates  the  mind  to  pursue  its  investigations  without  mis- 
giving, and  a  free  inquiry  refreshes  our  sense  of  the  trustworthi- 
ness of  both  the  realism  of  the  Gospels  and  the  idealism  implicit 
in  their  composition. 


CHAPTER  II 

FROM  THE  IDEAL  TO  THE  HISTORIC  CHRIST 

I.  The  Apostolic  faith  in  the  Christ-ideal  was  indissolubly 
bound  up  with  the  Jesus  of  History;  the  passage  from  the  one  to 
the  other  was  along  the  line  of  personal  experience,  and  was  not 
the  result  of  a  philosophizing  instinct  in  the  Church  leaders.  Our 
attempt  to  retrace  their  path  shows  them  to  have  been  guided 
by  a  logic  of  life;  while  describing  their  theological  Christ  they 
kept  their  fingers  on  the  actual  pulse  of  history.  The  Ideal 
Person  whom  they  had  learned  to  love  and  trust  had  come  to 
them  through  the  gates  of  human  birth,  and  they  viewed  the 
earthly  history  of  Jesus  as  a  little  parenthesis  in  the  eternity  of 
the  Logos-Son.  Philosophers  have  ever  stumbled  in  making  the 
transition  from  an  eternal  calm  to  Time's  stormy  lake;  the  gulf 
between  these  two  conceptions  seems  bridgeless.  The  Apostles 
sought  no  road  in  philosophy ;  their  faith  found  a  way  from  the 
preexistent  Ideal  of  Christ  to  the  tragic  sphere  of  history  in 
the  ethic  of  Divine  Love.  The  doctrine  of  the  Divine  Incarna- 
tion was  attained,  not  by  speculation,  biit  by  a  leap  of  faith — by 
direct  intuition,  by  Reason's  insight  into  the  inner  meaning  of 
Jesus  from  the  standpoint  of  the  Resurrection.  The  New  Testa- 
ment is  experimental  rather  than  speculative;  the  writers  have 
aimed  at  supplying  ethical  and  religious  needs  rather  than  in- 
tellectual curiosity.  The  passage  of  the  Son  into  our  world  was 
an  ethical  act  of  self-emptying — the  pattern  of  humility  in  the 
Godhead.  The  incarnation  of  the  Logos  is  described  meta- 
phorically as  the  pitching  of  a  tent  among  us  {eaHijvcoffev)^ 
while  a  third  writer  poetically  writes  of  Jesus  as  the  "  efifulgence 
of  God's  glory  "  {anavyaajxa  rij?  do^Tf?).  The  problem  of  a 
dual  consciousness  in  the  Cosmic  Logos  and  the  Babe  of  Bethle- 
hem did  not  come  within  the  range  of  speculation ;  in  their  belief 
in  the  Resurrection  the  Apostles  found  a  disclosure  of  the  true 
nature  of  Jesus ;  henceforth  He  was  to  them  a  Divine  Man.  He 
is  set  forth  in  this  atmosphere  of  faith  not  simply  as  a  prophet, 

32 


From  the  Ideal  to  the  Historic  Christ  33 

but  as  the  Word-incarnate;  not  as  the  chief  of  saints  merely, 
but  as  a  Saviour ;  not  only  as  a  martyr,  but  as  a  ransom. 

2.  Although  it  is  no  part  of  our  task  to  give  any  sketch  of 
the  merely  external  history  of  Jesus,  or  of  the  times  in  which  He 
lived,  we  may  roughly  suggest  the  background  of  His  ministry 
by  a  few  allusions  to  facts  and  factors  of  that  age.  The  uni- 
versal Christ-ideal  sprang  out  of  the  dry  ground  of  history  when 
civilization  was  concentrated  under  the  rule  of  Caesar.  The 
Gates  of  Janus  were  closed;  Alexander's  ambition  to  Hellenize 
the  world  was  being  rapidly  realized  under  Rome  itself;  the 
ideas  and  language  of  Greece  had  become  the  medium  of  in- 
tellectual commerce  throughout  the  world.  In  Alexandria,  Philo 
had  sought  to  reconcile  Plato  with  Moses;  Herod  the  Great 
strenuously  toiled  to  Hellenize  Judaea.  Yet  with  all  the  intense 
activity,  even  the  pomp  of  Rome  cannot  hide  the  lassitude  that 
had  fallen  upon  the  higher  intellect;  in  the  world  of  action  the 
heroic  age  was  past,  and  in  the  realm  of  thought  eclecticism  had 
taken  the  place  of  creative  power.  There  is  no  fear  of  confusing 
the  Person  of  Jesus  with  His  environment;  the  Christ-ideal  is 
easily  distinguishable  from  the  flora  and  fauna  of  its  geographical 
and  historical  setting.  When  we  turn  to  the  Gospels,  we  see 
that  the  spell  of  Jesus  possessed  the  writers;  they  saw  no  light 
save  that  which  shone  from  His  face:  hence,  there  are  no  soft 
shadings  and  gentle  nuances  in  the  background;  the  representa- 
tions of  the  Pharisees  are  crude  and  severe,  and  the  evangelists 
entirely  omit  all  reference  to  the  Essene  pietists  and  mystics, — 
sects  from  whose  wells  even  Jesus  may  have  drunk.  Our  feeling 
for  historic  detail  and  our  love  of  the  picturesque  are  keener 
than  theirs :  "  Many  of  us  have  felt  that  we  would  give  all  our 
books  if  we  could  but  see  with  our  own  eyes  how  a  single  day 
was  passed  by  a  single  ancient  Jewish,  Greek  or  Roman  family ; 
how  the  house  was  opened  in  the  morning;  how  the  meals  were 
prepared ;  what  was  said ;  how  the  husband,  wife  and  children 
went  about  their  work;  what  clothes  they  wore,  and  what  vere 
their  amusements."  ^  Yet  it  is  to  be  gravely  doubted  if  any 
increase  in  our  knowledge  of  these  external  things  will  throw 
very  much  light  upon  Jesus.  "  The  New  Testament  must  still 
be  studied  largely  by  light  drawn  from  itself."  ^     The  growth  of 

*  Mark  Rutherford,  The  Revohition  in  Tanner's  Lane,  p.  238. 
^  Dr.  T.  H.  Moulton,  Grammar  of  New  Testament  Greek,  p.  20, 


84  The  Days  of  the  Preparation 

the  Roman  Empire,  however,  affected  the  Hfe  of  Jesus  in  many 
ways ;  the  danger  He  had  studiously  to  avoid  in  His  Ministry  was 
lest  His  movements  should  be  taken  for  Jewish  recalcitrancy 
against  Rome;  and  yet  we  see  that  His  death  on  the  Cross  was 
a  Roman  punishment.  It  is,  however,  one  of  the  ironies  of 
history  that  Rome's  triumph  of  universal  sovereignty  was  shared 
with  that  Hellenism  which  "  swept  victoriously  in  Asia,  and 
established  itself  on  all  the  shores  of  the  Eastern  Mediterranean." 
Such  were  some  of  the  factors  which  Providence  used  to  prepare 
the  conditions  necessary  for  the  birth  of  the  universal,  ethical 
Religion  which  emerged  in  the  apostolic  faith  in  the  Christ-ideal. 
While  Jesus  was  by  birth  a  Jew,  there  is  nothing  narrow,  national 
or  archaic  in  His  figure  in  the  Gospels.  The  very  barrenness  of 
Jewish  politics  and  erudition  forced  the  attention  of  Jesus  into 
other  and  deeper  channels.  From  the  lowest  deep  Jesus  sprang 
upward  to  the  highest;  and  the  focusing  of  His  work  upon  the 
Godward  relationship  of  man  gave  the  whole  world  into  His 
embrace.  He  could  claim  to  be  the  World's  Light;  into  that 
flaccid  age  He  brought  the  exhilaration  and  buoyancy  of  a  new 
dawn. 

3.  When  we  come  to  deal  with  the  actual  narratives  of  the 
Gospels  which  describe  the  mode  of  Christ's  entrance  into  our 
world,  we  have  to  emulate  Plato's  skilful  carver  in  cutting  where 
the  joint  is ;  that  is,  we  have  to  discriminate  between  symbolism 
and  reality,  opinion  and  faith,  legend  and  history,  certitude  and 
feasibility.  The  nativity  stories  seem  to  have  been  translated 
from  primitive  Aramaic  songs;  whether  mythical  or  historical, 
they  illustrate  the  Church's  faith  in  Christ  Jesus.  That  both 
St.  Paul  and  St.  John  omit  all  allusion  to  the  miracle  of  the 
Virgin  Birth,  is  at  least  evidence  that  the  stories  which  relate  it 
were  not  deemed  by  them  to  be  integral  parts  of  the  Divine 
Revelation.  The  controversy  over  these  narratives  is  not  yet 
ended ;  but,  should  it  ever  come  to  pass  that  Jesus  will  be  thought 
of  as  the  natural  son  of  Joseph  and  Mary,  it  will  still  remain  true 
that  the  Word  was  made  flesh.  In  an  age  such  as  ours,  devoted 
to  natural  science  and  the  comparative  study  of  ethnic  religions,^ 
the  story  of  Christ's  parthenogenesis,  found  in  two  of  our  Gos- 
pels, was  bound  to  be  coordinated  with  similar  wonder-tales,  such 
as  those  relating  to  Buddha's  advent,  to  Plato's  descent  from 
*  Rhys  Davids,  Buddhist  Birth-Stories,  p.  64. 


From  the  Ideal  to  the  Historic  Christ         35 

Apollo,  and  to  the  divine  birth  of  Augustus.  Myths  like  these, 
rooted  in  hero-worship,  give  plausibility  to  the  argument  that  the 
New  Testament  stories  are  purely  legendary ;  although  it  is  pos- 
sible to  turn  the  edge  of  this  criticism  by  saying  that  all  such 
legends  found  in  classic  and  pagan  literature  serve  to  demonstrate 
the  yearning  of  all  nations  for  the  coming  of  a  Divine  Friend. 
However  treated,  these  wonder-tales  of  the  Gospels  remind  us 
that  the  mystery  of  personality  is  not  dissolved  by  reckoning 
only  the  physical  factors  of  generation.  Like  water-lilies  on  the 
surface  of  a  lake,  which  have  roots  winding  down  into  hidden 
depths,  so  are  the  souls  of  men.  Whenever  Plato  found  his 
dialectic  unequal  to  the  delineation  of  great  transcendental  truths 
about  human  life,  he  resorted  to  imagination  and  projected  great 
poetic  myths  to  shadow  forth  his  vision ;  and  should  it  ever  come 
to  pass  that  the  stories  of  the  Gospels  shall  be  discredited  as 
matters  of  fact,  they  will  still  retain  their  place  as  the  poetic 
insights  of  the  higher  imagination  into  the  mystery  of  the  In- 
carnation. 

4.  A  place  must  be  given  in  our  reading  of  the  Gospels  to 
the  play  of  a  constructive  impressionism,  which  is  both  as  legiti- 
mate and  as  useful  as  historical  criticism.  Sloughing  off  all 
naturalistic  presuppositions,  we  turn  again  as  children  to  read 
the  poetry  of  a  Divine  Incarnation.  Joseph,  the  putative  father 
of  Jesus,  appears  in  dim  outline  as  an  upright  Jew,  belonging 
like  Mary  to  a  spiritual  Israel ;  tradition  stamps  him  as  middle- 
aged,  and  gives  out  that  he  died  before  Jesus  reached  manhood. 
Mary,  a  cultivated,  gentle  maid,  imbued  with  the  sublime  hopes 
of  her  race,  has  taken  her  place  in  Christendom  as  the  highest 
type  of  womanhood,  crowned  with  the  graces  of  chastity,  love 
and  maternal  sacrifice.  Before  the  consummation  of  her  es- 
pousals the  power  of  the  Most  High  overshadowed  her  as  the 
Shekinah,  and  announced  that  she  should  miraculously  conceive 
and  bear  a  Son  who  should  fulfil  the  prophetic  role  of  the 
Messiah.  With  a  noble  simplicity,  Mary  responded :  "  Benold, 
the  bondmaid  of  the  Lord!  Be  it  unto  me  according  to  Thy 
word !  "  The  successive  steps  in  this  Divine  drama  are  set  forth 
in  rhythmic  speech,  which  is  at  once  flooded  with  exalted  passion 
and  held  back  with  exquisite  restraint.  With  perfect,  if  uncon- 
scious art,  the  evangelist  describes  the  meeting  of  Mary  with 
Elizabeth  her  kinswoman,  when  the  leap  of  the  unborn  babe 


36  The  Days  of  the  Preparation 

within  the  priest's  aged  wife  evoked  a  song  of  joy  over  the 
Mother  of  her  Lord,  and  Mary  responded  in  "  the  most  magnifi- 
cent cry  of  joy  that  ever  issued  from  a  human  breast."  Later, 
Zacharias  breaks  through  the  brooding  silence  of  months  with  his 
BenedicHis,  "  because  of  the  tender-mercy  of  our  God,  whereby 
the  day-spring  from  on  high  hath  visited  us."  The  actual  chron- 
icle of  the  Birth  is  bare  and  unadorned,  although  it  is  character- 
ized by  simple  dignity  and  pathos ;  the  Virgin  Mother  was  un- 
tended  in  her  travail,  and  the  new-born  child  was  laid  in  a 
manger.  The  contrariety  of  such  a  scene  to  all  the  gorgeous 
dreams  of  popular  Messianism,  seems  a  strong  presumption  in 
favour  of  its  historicity ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  silence  of 
Mary  herself  about  this  miracle  when  her  Son  had  reached 
manhood  makes  against  the  credibility  of  a  miraculous  concep- 
tion. We  dare  not  dogmatize  upon  the  one  view  or  the  other; 
for,  while  the  thought  of  the  Virgin  Birth  harmonizes  with  the 
conception  of  the  Christ-ideal  entering  into  history,  the  two 
accounts  in  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Luke  are  difficult  to  reconcile 
with  each  other.  Those  who  accept  the  miracle  of  the  Birth  do 
so,  not  because  Nature's  processes  are  too  slow,  but  because  they 
perceive  in  Jesus  a  new  beginning  in  history.  The  substance  of 
man  was  dyed  with  hues  of  hereditary  guilt,  and,  in  order  that 
the  entail  of  evil  might  be  cut  off,  the  Second  Adam  is  thought 
to  have  come  by  Virgin  Birth.  Those  who  reason  that  Christ 
would  assume  the  body  of  ordinary  generation  and  cleanse  it 
by  the  fires  of  His  sinlessness,  will  need  to  remember  that,  in 
matters  of  Revelation,  as  also  in  the  discovery  of  Nature's  laws, 
we  are  not  competent  to  judge  a  priori  of  what  shall  be; — we 
can  only  "  think  God's  thoughts  after  Him." 

5.  One  of  the  results  of  criticism  is  to  show  that  the  evangel- 
ists were  saved  from  extravagances  of  fancy  by  their  clear 
apprehension  of  the  Christ-ideal;  while  they  were  not  scientific 
historians,  the  character  they  aimed  at  describing  was  in  itself 
their  strongest  motive  for  veracity.  Any  laxity  in  their  feeling 
for  truth  would  have  led  them  into  a  boundless  realm  of  puerility 
and  superstition.  St.  Luke's  brief  and  modest  preface  does  not 
stamp  every  incident  as  ipso  facto  historical,  but  it  does  show  a 
typical  instance  of  honest  research.  We  are  able  to  discriminate 
between  the  wonder-tales  and  the  genuine  records  of  the  ministry 
of  Jesus,  and  upon  examination  it  becomes  apparent  that  the 


From  the  Ideal  to  the  Historic  Christ  37 

former  have  but  little  vital  connection  with  the  development  of 
Christ's  public  work,  and  are  precious  principally  because  of 
their  noble  symbolism.  The  story  of  the  massacre  of  the  Inno- 
cents and  of  the  flight  of  the  Holy  Family  into  Egypt,  is  not 
incredible  in  the  light  of  Herod's  character;  but  there  seems  no 
room  for  it  in  the  sequence  of  events  described  by  St.  Luke.  Still 
as  symbolism  we  may  use  the  narrative  as  the  artist  has  done 
in  the  picture  named  "  Anno  Domini,"  where  a  procession  of 
soldiers,  philosophers,  statesmen,  priests  and  musicians  is  arrested 
as  the  infant  Jesus  and  His  mother  are  led  athwart  the  path ; 
for  thus  truly  was  the  Child  Jesus  drawn  into  connection  with 
all  the  world.  The  faith  of  the  Christian  Church  does  not  rest 
upon  these  tales,  however;  and  to  treat  them  as  the  basis  of  our 
religion  is  to  stand  the  pyramid  on  its  apex.  "  The  Gospel " 
preceded  the  Gospels;  these  latter  writings  were  a  consequence, 
not  a  cause,  of  the  Church's  experience.  And  no  narratives  of 
miracle,  nor  doctrines  of  preexistence  and  Incarnation,  must  be 
permitted  to  loosen  our  hold  upon  the  true  Humanity  of  Jesus. 
While  the  Ideal  Christ  is  represented  as  a  strong  swimmer,  who, 
having  plunged  into  Lethe,  steps  out  upon  the  shores  of  Time 
as  other  human  beings,  and  occasionally  recalls  only  faint  memo- 
ries of  preexistence,  the  Pauline  doctrine  of  Kenosis  enables 
us  to  study  the  life  of  Jesus  as  though  He  were  simply  man,  so 
long  as  we  remember  that  the  true  development  of  manhood  de- 
pends upon  reciprocity  with  God — for  man  becomes  man  only 
as  he  receives  God ;  and  the  Divine  Spirit  was  as  the  atmosphere 
in  which  the  Man  Jesus  lived  and  moved  and  had  His  being. 

6.  In  treating  of  the  transition  from  the  Ideal  to  the  His- 
toric Christ,  the  imagination  may  be  legitimately  used  to  gather 
the  frail  hints  and  suggestions  accessible  to  us,  and  to  focus  the 
lights  and  shadows  that  hang  over  the  silent  years  of  Jesus.  Dim 
as  the  figure  of  Joseph  is,  the  man  himself  must  have  played 
an  important  and  authoritative  part  in  the  early  training  of 
Jesus ;  for  while  between  that  homely  carpenter  and  the  Boy, 
there  would  be  no  unfilial  sentiments,  yet  it  could  not  but  be  that 
Joseph  at  times  was  puzzled  by  the  thoughts  and  fancies,  frank- 
ness and  reserve  of  Jesus.  Even  Mary,  if  we  judge  from  allu- 
sions in  the  Gospels,  failed  to  understand  her  Son.  We  read  of 
four  brothers:  James,  Joses,  Judas  and  Simon,  and  two  unnamed 
sisters,  who  belonged  to  the  family  at  Nazareth.     These  are  some- 


38  The  Days  of  the  Preparation 

times  thought  of  as  step-brothers  or  cousins,  although,  apart 
from  the  ascetic  sentiment  of  ecclesiastics,  we  have  little  reason 
for  the  assumption  that  they  were  not  the  children  of  Mary. 
During  the  youth-time  of  Jesus,  many  a  misunderstanding  might 
have  occurred  between  Him  and  His  brethren;  and  in  Christ's 
saying  about  a  prophet  not  failing  to  receive  honour  save  in  his 
own  country,  there  may  have  lurked  a  reminiscence  of  loneliness 
and  of  lack  of  appreciation.     At  one  period  of  His  ministry,  the 
members  of  His  own   family  took  Him  to  be  beside  Himself. 
We  can  conjecture  the  probable  course  of  His  education  from  the 
"  Mishna "   which,   although   not  edited  till   a.d.   220,   suggests 
the  curriculum  through  which  Jewish  boys  had  passed  for  cen- 
turies.    Before  he  was  six  years  of  age  the  father  would  teach 
Him  to  recite  many  of  the  Proverbs  and  Psalms,  and  explain 
to  Him  the  history  and  meaning  of  the  rites  and  customs  be- 
longing to  their  nation.     Then  Jesus  would  attend  an  elementary 
school,  or  "  house  of  the  Book,"  where  He  acquired  the  rudiments 
of   culture.     The   Jews   of   that   time   must   have   been   mostly 
bilingual,    although    Mahaffy's    statement   is    extreme   when   he 
writes,  "  Though  we  may  believe  that  in  Galilee  and  among  His 
intimates  our  Lord  spoke  Aramaic,  and  though  we  know  that 
some  of  His  last  words  upon  the  Cross  were  in  that  language, 
yet  His  public  teaching.  His  discussions  with  the  Pharisees,  His 
talk  with  Pontius  Pilate,  were  certainly  carried  on  in  Greek."  ^ 
The  range  of  Palestinian  culture  was  limited  by  Jewish  prejudices 
against  other  nations,  yet  it  would  be  impossible  to  accentuate 
too  strongly  the  elevating  and  refining  influence  of  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures  upon  the  mind  of  Jesus ;  He  was  early  responsive 
to  the  lofty  ideas  springing  from  the  root-faith  in  God's  Father- 
hood  which   give   such   distinction  to   the   Psalms.     The   stern 
Hebrew  conscience  was  joined  in  Him  with  a  keen  sensibility 
to  all  that  was  grand  and  beautiful.     He  was  thrilled  by  the 
austerity  of  the  Law ;  fired  by  the  imagination  of  the  prophets ; 
and  melted  by  the  devotion   of  the   Psalms.     Nature   and  the 
Scriptures  were  His  daily  food:  through  them  there  came  to 
His  Spirit  the  voice  of  the  Heavenly  Father.     At  twelve  years 
of  age,  Jesus  was  invested  with  the  ethical  responsibilities  of 
Jewish  citizenship  and  celebrated  this  assumption  of  the  manly 
toga  by  a  solemn,  joyous  participation  in  the  Feast  of  the  Pass- 
over.    The  statement  that  "  the  Child  grew  and  waxed  strong, 
*  Hellenism  in  Alexander's  Empire,  p.  130. 


From  the  Ideal  to  the  Historic  Christ  39 

becoming  full  of  wisdom,  and  the  grace  of  God  was  upon  Him,"  * 
adds  but  little  to  our  knowledge,  though  it  suggests  the  Greek- 
like symmetry  of  His  character.  There  is  no  hint  of  abnormality, 
or  eccentricity  in  the  youth  of  Jesus;  the  apocryphal  legends  of 
Him  may  be  rejected  as  puerile  and  absurd.  The  story,  in  Luke, 
of  the  visit  to  the  temple,  marks  a  religious  crisis  in  the  soul  of 
the  growing  boy,  and  a  momentary  collision  of  the  filial  instinct 
which  turned  heavenward  with  the  habitual  obedience  to  parental 
authority.  St.  Mark's  explicit  statement  that  Jesus  was  a  carpen- 
ter,^ suggests  that  He  would  feel  the  distressful  antagonism  be- 
tween His  vague  yearnings  for  illimitable  ideals  and  the  narrow 
routine  of  a  Jewish  handicraft ;  and  this  would  be  a  discipline  in 
self-mastery.  Since  He  was  not  enrolled  as  a  pupil  in  any  college 
of  the  Scribes,  the  title  "  Rabbi  "  must  have  been  applied  to  Him 
in  courtesy  and  recognition  of  His  skill  in  teaching :  for  however 
lacking  in  scholastic  drill,  Jesus  drew  from  an  inexhaustible 
spring  of  inward  wisdom.  In  walks  around  Nazareth,  He  har- 
vested sheaves  of  rich  poetic  observation ;  in  His  attendance  at 
the  synagogue.  He  may  have  begun  to  acquire  His  matchless 
skill  in  dialectics ;  and  in  His  annual  pilgrimages  to  the  capital 
He  would  glean  knowledge  by  converse  with  Hellenists  from 
Rome,  Athens,  Alexandria  and  the  cities  of  Asia.  He  absorbed 
the  intellectual  heritage  of  His  time,  together  with  the  limitations 
which  belonged  to  contemporary  thought;  hence  the  necessity 
of  distinguishing  in  His  later  teaching  between  the  essential  and 
the  accidental,  between  the  timeless  Word  of  God  and  its  tem- 
poral vehicles  of  expression.  In  the  noblest  literature  of  Greece, 
the  highest  thought  is  mingled  with  matters  grotesque  and  some- 
times revolting,  but  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  we  find  unique 
purity  and  sustained  elevation;  whatever  intellectual  errors  may 
belong  to  the  Gospels,  there  are  no  moral  lapses.  Throughout 
the  life  of  Jesus  there  was  an  ethical  continuity;  the  noble  self- 
sacrifice  of  the  public  ministry  had  grown  from  roots  in  the  life 
at  Nazareth.  It  may  be  suspected  that  the  decease  of  Joseph 
early  threw  upon  Him  the  obligation  of  maintaining  the  hom.e 
by  His  toil  in  the  carpenter  shop,  and  perhaps  shut  out  from 
His  youthful  thoughts  the  Jewish  desire  of  marriage;  the  tree 
which  bore  such  fruit  of  altruism  at  Calvary  was  the  transplanted 
self-denial  of  obscure  years :  He  may  have  been  one  of  those 

*Luke  ii.  40,  52;    cf.  Judg.  xiii.  24. 
'Mark  vi.  3,  tcktuv. 


40  The  Days  of  the  Preparation 

"which   have  made   themselves   eunuchs    for   the   sake   of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven." 

7.  But  all  our  efforts  to  discover  how  the  Christ-ideal  grew 
up  in  our  history  only  show  us  how  impenetrable  are  the  clouds 
that  encircle  the  personality  of  Jesus.  We  cannot  speak  of  Him 
as  though  He  were  the  simple  product  of  His  environment;  the 
increasing  knowledge  of  His  time  and  place  in  history  leaves 
Him  still  the  Great  Enigma  to  Naturalism:  to  us  He  is  God's 
Ideal,  projected  into  the  plexus  of  human  relationships.  Jesus 
appears  to  have  sustained  uninterrupted  and  full  obedience  to 
the  Will  of  God  in  all  its  successive  disclosures,  and  through  this 
reciprocity  with  the  Divine  Spirit  He  realized  the  crown  of 
perfect  Humanity.  It  is  well-nigh  impossible  for  us  to  think  of 
Him  as  being  the  subject  of  gross  temptations;  struggles  He 
passed  through  severer  far  than  such  as  are  known  to  us,  but 
they  were  not  the  products  of  selfishness  and  lust.  He  kept 
Himself  unsullied ;  it  is  no  wonder,  therefore,  that  His  Birth  was 
imagined  to  be  miraculous.  As  He  grew  up,  few  of  the  in- 
fluences that  beat  upon  His  soul  were  more  potent  than  the 
incoherent,  political  and  apocalyptic  ideas  of  popular  Messianism. 
At  certain  junctures  of  His  experience,  He  must  have  felt  re- 
sponsiveness to  the  monarchical  ideal  of  the  Psalms  which  shone 
in  the  Hebrew  imagination  as  a  glowing  picture — all  gold  and 
crimson.  But  over  against  this  He  contemplated  an  ideal  lost 
sight  of  by  most  of  His  contemporaries — the  deutero-Isaiah's 
conception  of  the  suffering  Servant  of  Jehovah.  Until  His  Bap- 
tism, Jesus  may  have  remained  unconscious  of  His  predestined 
vocation,  except  for  His  vague  feelings  of  latent  power;  but 
when  the  crisis  came  He  had  to  choose  between  these  two  ideals. 
Although  sensitive  to  His  nation's  need.  He  did  not  mar  His 
work  by  prematurity,  but  waited  in  quiet  strength  and  self- 
repression  for  the  irresistible  imperative  of  His  Father's  call. 
He  did  not  hurry  into  hazardous  situations  and  by  unbalanced 
zeal  imperil  the  sacred  cause  of  Truth ;  but  He  set  a  wise  restraint 
upon  all  the  immature  fervours  and  heats  of  youth,  aiming  only 
to  do  the  Sovereign  Will  of  His  Father.  In  the  shadowy  back- 
ground of  those  silent  years  we  see  the  dim  figure  of  Jesus  the 
Carpenter  living  a  life  of  strenuous  toil  and  disciplinary  self- 
repression — at  times  lonely,  yet  not  unjoyous ;  a  devout,  prayerful 
and  meditative  man.     There  need  be  no  faint-hearted  fear  that 


From  the  Ideal  to  the  Historic  Christ         41 

Jesus  is  thus  conceived  of  too  humanly.  In  making  our  passage 
from  the  Apostolic  Ideal  to  the  Historic  Jesus  of  the  Gospels, 
we  have  sought  only  to  avoid  unnecessary  dogmas  in  preparation 
for  the  subsequent  examination  of  all  the  facts  and  factors  in 
Christ's  public  ministry;  some  questions  that  meet  us  at  the 
very  beginning  cannot  be  ansv^rered  until  we  reach  the  end. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  VOICE  IN  THE  WILDERNESS 

I.  "  We  have  come  to  the  last  days,  and  a  new  succession  of 
ages  dawns.  The  Virgin  returns,  and  a  new  race  is  ready  to 
descend  from  the  lofty  heavens."  ^  This  remarkable  prediction 
reflects  the  universal  expectation  of  some  momentous  change 
in  the  world's  history.  The  genius  of  Greece  was  well-nigh 
spent;  Rome  had  subdued  the  nations  and  made  the  Mediter- 
ranean its  imperial  lake;  the  fulness  of  the  time  had  come;  the 
old  age  was  to  terminate,  a  new  one  was  to  begin.  In  Palestine 
the  foolish  internecine  quarrels  of  the  Asmoneans  had  resulted 
in  the  complete  vassalage  of  the  Jews,  first  to  Pompey,  and  then 
to  Caesar,  While  Herod  the  Great  had  sought  to  ingratiate 
himself  by  the  rebuilding  of  the  temple,  he  had  assiduously 
paganized  Jewish  life;  he  covered  the  land  with  magnificent 
buildings  in  Greek  and  Roman  styles  of  architecture ;  even  within 
the  walls  of  Jerusalem  he  established  a  theatre,  wherein  were 
exhibited  the  sanguinary  horrors  of  gladiatorial  contests ;  and,  as 
a  final  insult  to  the  nation  which  he  governed,  he  had  caused  the 
golden  image  of  an  eagle  to  be  set  up  over  the  gate  of  the 
temple.  Herod's  death  did  not  bring  emancipation  to  Israel, 
for  the  dispute  between  Archelaus  and  Herod  Antipas  caused 
the  chains  of  servitude  to  be  fastened  more  securely  upon  this 
high-spirited  people:  at  last,  all  remaining  vestiges  of  autonomy 
were  swept  away.  Judaea  sank  into  the  state  of  a  petty  Roman 
province,  and  the  procurator,  generally  a  governor  of  equestrian 
rank,  was  responsible  to  the  legate  in  Syria,  or  directly  to  Rome, 
whither  at  a  later  date  Vitellius  sent  Pilate  for  trial.  Fiery 
patriots  arose,  one  after  another,  to  lead  the  forlorn  hope  of 
revolt;  but  the  only  result  of  these  frequent  risings,  besides  the 
immediate  bloodshed,  was  to  increase  the  rigour  of  the  Roman 
government.  What  a  strange,  sad,  heroic  history  Israel  has  had! 
Enslaved  by  Egypt,  crushed  and  exiled  by  Assyria,  at  the  mercy 

*  Virgil's  Eclogues. 
42 


The  Voice  in  the  Wilderness  43 

of  Persia,  overrun  by  Greeks,  and  now  subjugated  by  Rome! 
But  the  paradox  of  her  history  had  always  been  that  fondest 
hopes  of  Hberty  sprang  up  at  those  times  when  succour  seemed 
most  improbable.  The  prophets  declared  that  Jehovah  would 
have  His  day,  and  bring  deliverance  and  triumph  to  His  down- 
trodden people.  The  subsequent  centuries  have  shown  that 
the  soul  of  Israel  can  never  die.  At  the  time  of  John's  appearing, 
the  Jewish  people  were  full  of  hopes  and  presentiments  of  the 
coming  of  some  great  deliverer. 

2.  Great  men  are  God's  best  gifts  to  nations,  and  the  world's 
greatest  men  are  discoverers  of  the  ideal  and  prophets  of  right- 
eousness. Prophets  like  Isaiah  and  John  the  Baptist  enrich  all 
nations.  There  is  a  wise  instinct  which  makes  the  Chinese,  even 
while  seeking  to  possess  the  arts  and  sciences  of  the  West,  refuse 
to  reckon  our  mechanicians  and  inventors  as  comparable  with 
the  sages  and  princely  characters  of  their  own  antiquity.  The 
pioneers  who  lead  the  advance  in  morals  and  religion  do  more 
for  mankind  than  all  others ;  and  among  the  greatest  prophets 
of  this  Higher  Humanity  Jesus  ranked  John  the  Baptist.  It 
is  not  easy,  however,  for  us  to  form  a  true  judgement  about 
this  great  man  since  our  historical  data  are  but  a  few  fragments. 
We  see  that  the  work  of  John  was  part-cause  of  the  Christian 
religion ;  or,  more  correctly,  we  infer  that  the  revival  of  Israel's 
Spirit  by  the  preaching  of  John  created  an  important  tributary 
to  the  great  movement  that  formed  the  Christian  Church.  Not 
at  once,  but  after  some  years,  the  work  of  John  was  absorbed 
by  Christianity,  and  carried  forward  to  ends  he  never  anticipated. 
It  is  easily  understood  why  Josephus  should  be  silent  about 
John's  belief  concerning  the  coming  of  the  Messiah;  but  our 
Gospels  are  doubtless  correct  in  representing  him  as  speaking 
of  himself  as  the  herald  of  another.  We  must,  however,  refuse 
any  conventional  acceptance  of  this  title  for  John  which  hides 
the  greatness  of  his  character  and  work.  Theologians  have  too 
resolutely  subordinated  John's  ministry  as  a  mere  preparation 
for  the  work  of  Jesus,  and  as  a  consequence  we  are  in  danger  of 
missing  the  reality  of  John's  career.  Just  as  one  can  suck  the 
life  and  meaning  out  of  facts  by,  let  us  say,  applying  the  "  law 
of  average,"  so,  by  subjecting  John's  life  to  the  dogmatic  rule 
that  he  went  before  Jesus,  only  to  prepare  the  way,  we  come 
at  length  to  reduce  the  great  prophet  to  a  shadow.     Our  own 


44  The  Days  of  the  Preparation 

minds  will  be  enriched  by  fully  recognizing  the  intrinsic  greatness 
of  John's  manhood.  As  we  shall  set  forth  later,  his  work  did 
not  cease  when  Jesus  began  to  preach;  John  was  first  in  time, 
though  he  himself  perceived  the  spiritual  priority  of  Jesus;  and 
John's  appeal  stirred  the  dying  pulse  of  conscience  in  the  nation, 
and  did  much  to  prepare  the  atmosphere  in  which  the  movement 
of  Jesus  might  grow ;  and  yet  John's  school  was  separate  from 
that  of  Jesus,  and  continued  so  down  to  the  age  of  Apollos.  On 
the  other  hand,  misunderstanding  is  increased  tenfold  by  any 
attempts  to  place  John  above  Jesus,  and  by  insinuations  that 
"  the  baptism  unto  repentance  "  was  the  origination  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

3.  Although  the  impression  made  by  John  the  Baptist  upon  the 
Jewish  nation  was  evidently  very  great  for  a  time,  only  a  few 
facts  are  recorded  concerning  him.  Josephus  sums  up  his  min- 
istry in  a  sentence :  "  John  exhorted  the  Jews  to  practise  virtue 
and  to  be  righteous  toward  each  other  and  pious  toward  God, 
and  to  assemble  for  baptism."  ^  St.  Luke  has  preserved  the 
fullest  account  of  him ;  he  was  of  priestly  descent  on  both  sides ; 
and  his  parents,  Zacharias  and  Elizabeth,  lived  in  "  a  city  of 
Judah  in  the  hill  country."  Whether  we  ascribe  little  or  much 
value  for  history  to  the  song  of  Zacharias,  it  must  reftect  the 
early  thought  and  emotion  stirred  in  Christian  circles  by  the 
memories  of  John.  His  birth  was  about  the  year  6  B.C.,  and 
came  to  be  regarded  as  the  signal  that  Jehovah  was  preparing 
to  fulfil  His  covenant-promise  with  Abraham,  the  issue  of  which 
accomplishment  would  be  the  moral  and  political  redemption  of 
Israel.  The  song,  which  is  moulded  upon  Old  Testament 
prophecies,  represents  John  to  be  the  Preparer  of  Jehovah's 
way  foretold  in  the  oracles  of  the  deutero-Isaiah  and  Malachi.^ 
The  third  evangelist  speaks  of  his  boyhood  after  the  Old  Testa- 
ment manner  just  as  he  does  about  Jesus:  "the  hand  of  the 
Lord  was  with  him,"  and  "  the  child  grew  and  waxed  strong 
in  spirit,  and  was  in  the  deserts  till  the  day  of  his  showing  unto 
Israel "  {dyaSeiSea)?  avrov).  The  angel  Gabriel  is  said  to 
have  prophesied  of  his  Nazarite  discipline :  "  He  shall  drink  no 
wine  nor  strong  drink,  and  He  shall  be  filled  with  the  Holy 
Ghost,   even   from   His  mother's  womb."  ^   With  these  slender 

^Ant.,  xviii.,  v.  2.  '  Isa.  xl.  3-5;  Mai.  iii.  i;  iv.  2. 

^Luke  i.  IS,  39,  66,  80. 


The  Voice  in  the  Wilderness  45 

materials,  and  our  reasonable  conjecture  that  the  youth,  would 
make  annual  visits  to  Jerusalem  to  share  in  the  great  festivals 
at  the  temple,  we  must  construct  our  mental  picture  of  John 
until  the  time  of  his  public  ministry.  His  eremite  fare  was 
locusts  and  wild  honey;  his  raiment  was  a  cloak  of  camel's  hair 
bound  about  with  a  leathern  girdle.  It  is  possible  that  John  was 
influenced  in  early  life  by  the  Essenes,  whose  cenobia  were  on 
the  west  of  the  Dead  Sea.  Through  his  father's  wish  the  boy, 
after  Zacharias's  death,  or  perhaps  before,  may  have  been 
placed  among  these  pious  and  laborious  ascetics,  who  made  up 
for  losses  by  death  in  their  celibate  community  by  adopting 
children,  and  admitting  those  who  renounced  the  world.  In  such 
a  school  John  might  have  learnt  that  austere  purity  that  was 
so  prominent  a  characteristic  of  his  manhood.  But  the  negative 
desire  of  the  Essenes  to  withdraw  from  evil  could  not  have 
engendered  in  John's  mind  the  conviction  of  a  Divine  commission 
to  reform  Israel.  Whoever  may  have  been  John's  tutors — and 
perhaps  he  was  schooled  chiefly  by  the  Divine  Spirit  in  his 
solitude,  his  days  were  regulated  by  devotion  to  the  high  things 
of  the  soul ;  and  from  the  few  sentences  recorded  of  his  preach- 
ing, it  may  be  inferred  that  he  read  and  brooded  over  the  oracles 
of  prophecy  until  his  mind  was  fired  by  the  old  ideals. 

4.  St.  Matthew  alludes  vaguely  to  the  beginning  of  John's 
ministry — "  in  those  days  " ;  but  the  third  evangelist  defines, 
with  utmost  elaboration,  many  of  the  events  that  synchronized 
with  it,  and  we  judge  that  "  the  showing  of  John  unto  Israel " 
took  place  about  a.d.  28.  Fain  would  we  trace  the  crisis  which 
transformed  the  solitary  devotee  into  a  great  prophet;  but  his 
call  is  simply  stated  without  comment,  "  the  word  of  God "  ^ 
came  to  him  in  the  wilderness.  His  previous  life  had  been  a 
preparation  for  this  crisis :  the  spiritual  struggles  of  the  hermit 
culminated  in  an  experience  of  Divine  possession ;  a  fire  began 
to  burn  in  his  soul ;  he  could  no  longer  remain  silent — the  whole 
man  became  a  voice — a  shout  of  warning — God's  trumpet  in 
Israel.  The  voice  of  prophecy  had  been  silent  for  centuries : 
it  was  as  though  the  shocks  of  adversity  had  exhausted  the  very 
fountain  of  inspiration ;  and  the  place  that  the  prophet  had  left 
vacant  was  occupied  by  scribes,  lawyers,  Pharisees,  It  was  said 
that  "  from  the  time  that  the  temple  was  destroyed,  the  gift  of 
*  Luke  iii.  knf^a  Qeov. 


46  The  Days  of  the  Preparation 

prophecy  was  taken  from  the  prophets  and  given  to  the  wise." 
The  age  of  John  was  a  period  when  the  schools  of  the  Sadducees 
and  Pharisees  flourished;  the  Sadducees  were  aristocratic  scep- 
tics, political  cynics  and  opportunists ;  among  the  Pharisees  there 
were  some  men  of  enlightenment  and  ideas;  but  the  greater 
number  of  them  were  narrow  souls  and  rigorous  pedants.  Stu- 
dents gave  themselves  up  to  wearisome  trifling,  and  invisible 
chains  were  placed  upon  the  living  conscience.  It  was  an  age 
of  the  letter,  and  the  spirit  was  being  stifled.  Instead  of  falling 
like  some  fertilizing  pollen  upon  men's  minds,  the  sayings  of  the 
fathers  and  learning  of  the  past  fell  like  sterilizing  blight  upon 
men's  intellects.  Away  in  the  desert  John  escaped  this  deadening 
influence,  and  long-continued  faithfulness  to  God  resulted  in 
growing  sensitiveness  to  the  touch  of  the  Divine  Spirit;  he  was 
prepared  to  be  the  channel  of  new  inspiration  and  revelation. 
Breadth  of  culture,  erudition,  and  fertility  of  ideas  are  precious 
things  in  the  equipment  of  men  for  great  work,  but  they  do 
not  constitute  prophecy;  a  prophet  must  be  formed  by  profound 
intuition  into  the  Divine  counsel,  and  by  the  resistless  feeling 
that  God  is  driving  him  to  announce  the  truths  stamped  on  his 
soul.  Like  John,  his  ideas  may  be  few  and  elementary;  but  he 
is  God's  thrall,  and  must  utter  God's  message.  Though  no  sign 
came  from  Heaven,  the  mind  of  John  was  seized  and  held 
captive  by  the  conviction  that  the  "  kingdom  of  heaven  "  was 
imminent.  He  had  not  discarded  the  political  mould  into  which 
the  Messianic  ideal  was  cast ;  but  he  saw  that  before  any  political 
dream  could  be  realized,  Israel  must  be  subjected  to  a  great 
purification.  The  axe  was  laid  at  the  root  of  the  tree  of 
national  life;  and  if  the  tree  was  to  be  spared,  it  must  bring 
forth  the  fruits  of  repentance.  John  anticipated  a  theophany  of 
magnitude  and  grandeur,  whereby  Divine  judgement  would  be 
inflicted  upon  evil  persons,  and  salvation  be  gained  by  those  who 
repent.  As  to  Amos,  so  to  John,  Jehovah's  Day  was  to  be  one 
of  retribution  and  terror  for  the  guilty,  and  his  task  as  a  prophet 
was  to  make  ready  for  the  advent  of  the  Divine  Sovereign.  The 
key-word  of  all  the  Baptist's  preaching  was  "  repentance  " — 
nietanoia,  which  signified  self-detachment  from  evil  and  direc- 
tion of  the  mind  and  will  upon  God.  This  message  was  hurled 
forth  with  the  force  of  moral  certitude  and  winged  with  noble 
enthusiasm.  Jewish  society  cherished  the  prejudice  that  descent 
from   Abraham   gave   an   inherent   right   to   participate   in   the 


The  Voice  in  the  Wilderness  47 

Divine  Kingdom.  John,  however,  made  it  plain  that  race-feeling 
was  no  reasonable  ground  of  assurance;  for  society  must  ulti- 
mately rest  on  conscience.  As  for  the  blood-tie,  God  could 
dispense  with  it,  and,  if  it  were  necessary,  could  raise  up  children 
to  Abraham  from  the  stones  of  the  desert.  John  gave  no  evi- 
dence of  constructive  power,  such  as  Moses  exercised,  to  form 
a  nation  from  tribes  of  slaves ;  his  mission  was  totally  different — 
to  awaken  a  degenerate  nation  out  of  their  dogmatic  slumber; 
to  turn  the  hearts  of  men  away  from  a  false  patriotism,  and 
to  induce  them  to  anticipate  the  reign  of  God  by  moral  reform. 
He  would  rectify  the  social  inequalities  by  the  practice  of  com- 
munity in  dress  and  food,  and  imitation  of  the  voluntary  poverty 
of  the  Essenes.  He  rebuked  the  restless  greed  for  riches  shown 
by  the  tax-collectors,  and  inculcated  upon  the  soldiers  whose 
consciences  were  touched  the  restraint  of  all  violence  and  out- 
rage; and,  to  the  astonishment  of  traditionalists,  he  neither  re- 
fused these  classes  his  baptism  nor  demanded  of  them  the 
renunciation  of  their  profession.  Only  when  approached  by  the 
proud,  self-satisfied  Pharisees  did  he  burst  forth  in  wrath  and 
invective.  He  had  no  statesman's  programme;  his  message  was 
one  of  elementary  ethics ;  its  permanent  value  lay  in  the  unfalter- 
ing enunciation  of  the  fundamental  dictates  of  conscience  as  the 
true  basis  of  the  new  theocracy.  To  preach  so  rudimentary  a 
message  as  this  may  have  been  the  mission  of  a  precursor,  or 
herald;  yet  at  times  of  national  decadence  through  the  collapse 
or  putrefaction  of  customary  religious  beliefs,  there  is  no  other 
way  to  the  resurgence  of  hope  and  vigour  than  that  of  falling 
back  upon  this  simple  Divine  rema,  or  Word,  which  inspired 
John. 

5.  One  feature  which  impressed  John's  contemporaries  more 
than  any  other  was  his  use  of  baptism :  this  symbolic  act  touched 
the  imagination  of  Israel  and  won  for  him  the  title  of  "  the 
Baptist."  This  rite  is  not  to  be  hastily  identified  with  the 
ablutions  of  the  Essenes  any  more  than  with  the  Indian  pr.ictice 
of  bathing  in  the  Ganges ;  John  himself  signified  by  it  the  pre- 
paratory initiation  of  the  penitent  into  the  covenant  community 
of  Jehovah;  and  it  fitly  symbolized  the  need  of  the  individual's 
regeneration.  When  the  Pharisee-critics  disputed  concerning 
his  authority  to  baptize  men,  he  affirmed  with  simple  dignity  that 
God  sent  him  to  baptize  with  water.     Our  uncertainty  whether 


48  The  Days  of  the  Preparation 

baptism  was  by  immersion  or  effusion,  only  indicates  that  the 
rite  was  not  affected  in  its  meaning  and  value  by  external  modes. 
Slight  verbal  variations  in  the  evangelist's  descriptions  of  this 
rite  are  not  without  interest — "  a  baptism  of  repentance  for 
remission  of  sins,"  and  a  "  baptism  unto  {ei  repentance " ; 
its  objective  aim  was  the  Divine  pardon,  and  its  inward  or 
subjective  intention  was  the  death  of  self  to  sin  and  consecration 
to  a  new  life.  The  desert  prophet  could  not  attach  to  this  rite 
the  symbolism  of  Christ's  death  and  resurrection,  as  St.  Paul 
did;  yet  in  principle,  John's  baptism  meant  the  same  twofold 
spiritual  experience — death  to  sin  and  life  unto  righteousness. 

6.  The  third  evangelist  describes  one  of  the  results  of  the 
Baptist's  preaching.  All  the  people  were  set  musing  whether 
John  himself  might  not  be  the  expected  Messiah ;  but  in  answer 
to  their  inquiries,  he  disclaimed  all  pretensions  to  the  office  of 
Jehovah's  anointed,  and  differentiated  his  baptism  from  that 
spiritual  effusion  which  the  true  Messiah  was  destined  to  ad- 
minister. In  the  Fourth  Gospel,  a  similar  inquiry  is  made  by 
deputies  from  the  Sanhedrim  at  Jerusalem;  but  so  different  in 
spirit  and  aim  is  it  in  its  triple  form,  that  we  do  not  think  it 
refers  to  the  same  incident.  He  will  let  neither  friends  nor 
foes  think  that  he  is  the  Christ,  or  Elijah,  or  the  prophet 
Jeremiah :  he  describes  himself  simply  as  a  voice  crying  in  the 
wilderness ;  and  when  his  own  authority  is  called  in  question, 
he  boldly  announces  that  the  true  Messiah  is  standing  in  their 
midst,  though  they  know  Him  not,  and  on  the  following  day 
points  out  Jesus  as  the  Coming  One.  H  this  representation  of 
the  Fourth  Gospel  be  regarded  as  lacking  the  authority  of 
history,  we  have  still  the  Synoptic  tradition  that  the  coming  of 
the  Messiah  was  the  burden  of  his  prophecy.  Jehovah's  King- 
dom was  about  to  be  established,  and  John  utters  an  imperious 
call  for  Israel  to  make  ready  by  righteousness.  The  utterances 
attributed  to  the  Baptist  delineate  the  unknown  Messiah  as  some 
mighty  personality  of  regal  dignity,  whose  shoes  John  feels  he 
would  be  unworthy  to  unloose.  His  ministry  is  to  be  one  of 
judgement :  He  comes  to  His  threshing-floor  with  "  the  fan  in 
His  hand,"  and  He  will  burn  up  the  chaff  with  unquenchable 
fire.  We  wonder  how  John  could  ever  have  identified  the  Gentle 
Nazarene  with  such  a  majestic  and  terrible  office!  Yet  even 
through  the  rifted  clouds  of  judgement  he  caught  glimpses  of 


The  Voice  in  the  Wilderness  49 

the  permanent  sway  of  peace  and  right.  He  perceived  that,  be- 
sides being  a  poHtical  ideal,  the  Messianic  Kingdom  also  em- 
braced the  moral  order  of  the  world,  and  was  the  potential  soul  of 
the  sensuous  phenomena  of  the  material  realm.  Jehovah,  how- 
ever, was  still  a  righteous  Sovereign  outside  man,  before  whom 
man  must  bow  in  penitence;  the  Kingdom  was  still  external, 
though  based  on  moral  laws,  so  that  naught  that  defileth  or 
maketh  a  lie  can  enter  it.  The  sublimity  of  this  ideal  is  patent  to 
all,  but  it  was  limited  by  John's  nationalism,  and  its  defect  lay  in 
its  external  transcendence ;  for  the  prophet  was  conscious  that 
only  one  who  could  baptize  with  the  Spirit  could  make  it  imma- 
nent in  man.  The  Fourth  Gospel  accurately  appraises  John's 
character  and  ministry — "  a  man  sent  from  God  to  bear  witness 
to  the  Light " ;  but  he  was  not  the  Light. 

7.  A  thrill  of  religious  revival  passed  through  the  land,  and 
representatives  of  all  classes  flocked  to  the  Jordan  to  confess 
their  sins  and  be  baptized.  Had  John  desired  it  he  might  easily 
have  been  accepted  as  the  Messiah,  although  there  were  critics 
who  accused  him  of  being  possessed  by  a  demon.  But  neither 
flattery  nor  censure  could  cause  John  to  swerve;  he  was  free 
from  the  last  weakness  of  many  noble  men ;  no  egoistic  ambition 
tainted  his  mission ;  he  was  filled  by  a  true  enthusiasm  for  right- 
eousness. In  many  moods  he  recalled  to  men's  minds  the  im- 
pressive figure  of  Elijah,  and  Jesus  spoke  of  him  afterwards 
as  the  Elias  that  was  to  come.  This  picturesque  and  rugged 
Man  of  God  awoke  a  temporary  response  in  Israel:  a  spirit  of 
hope  breathed  over  the  people;  but  after  the  lapse  of  a  few 
months,  the  moths  that  fluttered  around  this  burning,  lamplike 
character  grew  dissatisfied,  and  the  movement  ebbed,  leaving 
another  school  or  sect  behind.  Once  again  the  sky  grew  dark, 
and  John  lived  long  enough  to  see  the  waning  of  the  enthusiasm 
he  had  kindled  with  such  hope. 


CHAPTER  IV 

JESUS  IS  BAPTIZED  BY  JOHN 

I.  The  real  life  of  every  personality  is  surrounded  by  thick 
clouds  and  darkness;  nevertheless,  if  its  central  light  be  strong 
enough,  the  obscurity  is  shot  through  with  revealing  lines  and 
tints,  and  in  the  case  of  the  highest,  noblest  humanity,  the  mist 
becomes  a  nimbus  of  glory.  But  when  we  seek  to  read  the 
inner  processes  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  the  difficulty  we  experience 
in  understanding  any  experience  but  our  own  is  intensified  by  the 
very  light  that  reveals  Him.  And  yet,  since  our  secret  is  made 
plain  in  His  Enigma — the  purpose  and  meaning  of  our  manhood 
being  set  forth  most  completely  in  Him — we  are  urged  forward 
in  attempts  to  understand  Him,  even  at  the  peril  of  losing  our 
way  amid  limitless  conjectures  and  illusions.  Jesus  alone  shows 
us  the  perfect  norm  of  our  nature;  He  is  most  natural;  but 
the  very  completeness  of  His  personal  development  makes  Him 
seem  to  us,  who  are  so  imperfect,  a  Supernatural  Man.  The 
New  Testament,  however,  makes  it  plain  that  He  attained  this 
fulness  of  human  life  by  passing  through  all  the  stages  and 
processes  of  man's  growth.  An  erratic  tendency  of  present-day 
thought  is  to  look  back  to  the  beginnings  of  life  in  order  to 
discover  the  real  nature  of  things ;  but  the  only  correct  judgement 
must  be  based  on  "  ends,"  not  upon  "  origins."  The  wonderful 
"  Key  of  Evolution,"  which  has  unlocked  so  many  mysteries 
of  life,  fails  to  open  the  secrets  of  man's  moral  personality; 
the  best  and  highest  qualities  in  man  are  elicited  from  poten- 
tiality into  actuality  only  through  intercourse  and  association 
with  others.  Jesus  shows  us  how  the  pleroma  of  humanity  can 
be  attained  only  when  man  is  in  conscious  reciprocity  with  God. 
The  secret  of  the  youth  and  manhood  of  Jesus  was  that  He 
grew  in  conscious  relationship  to  the  Heavenly  Father :  this  was 
not  only  the  metaphysical  ground  of  His  Life,  it  was  also  the 
chosen  attitude  of  His  Will.  We  all  have  occasional  visitations 
of  the  filial  moods — vague  susceptibilities  awakened,  then  slum- 
bering amid  the  sequent  conditions  of  sense.  But  with  Jesus 
this  spiritual  consciousness  was  no  rare  mood;  it  was,  rather, 

50 


Jesus  is  Baptized  by  John  51 

the  permanent  attitude  of  His  Will.  This  filial  spirit  was  the 
supreme  attainment  of  humanity ;  not  only"  a  human  endeavour, 
but  also  a  gift  of  Divine  Grace.  His  mature  character  is  the 
product  of  the  reciprocal  operations  of  the  Divine  and  human — 
the  final  result  of  His  efiforts,  struggles,  and  concentrated  pursuit 
of  moral  and  spiritual  ideals:  yet  even  so,  His  human  aspira- 
tions were  Divine  inspirations,  transmuting  all  personal  passion 
and  desires  into  the  fine  gold  of  a  surrendered  will.  In  the 
Baptism  and  subsequent  temptation-period,  one  of  these  moment- 
ous crises  in  the  experience  of  the  Son  of  Man  is  preserved  for 
our  instruction  and  illumination. 

2.  In  the  Gospel  of  the  Hebrews,  Mary  and  the  brothers  of 
Jesus  are  reported  to  have  proposed  that  Jesus  should  go  forth 
to  the  Baptism  of  John,  and  in  reply  Jesus  repudiated  any 
necessity  for  doing  so,  as  He  had  no  consciousness  of  sin.  What- 
ever truth  may  underlie  this  statement,  it  appears  credible  that 
some  conversation  between  Mother  and  Son  must  have  preceded 
His  determination  to  submit  to  this  ritual  of  repentance;  and 
if  we  imagine  that  Jesus  already  foresaw  that  He  was  now  to 
abandon  His  occupation  to  take  up  a  public  ministry,  He  must 
have  made  known  His  purpose  to  the  members  of  His  family, 
and  transferred  to  a  younger  brother  the  responsibility  in  which 
His  seniority  had  involved  Him.  The  great  change  about  to 
take  place  in  the  life  of  Jesus  had  been  foreshadowed  by  pre- 
sentiments of  His  high  calling;  and  in  the  sacred  colloquies 
between  Mary  and  her  Son,  there  must  have  been  scintillations 
from  the  dark  ground  of  mystery  in  which  His  life  was  rooted. 
Is  there  any  parallel  in  the  "  confidences  "  between  Augustine 
and  Monica  told  in  the  "Confessions"  of  the  former?  "She 
and  I  stood  alone,  leaning  at  a  certain  window  which  overlooked 
the  garden  of  the  house  which  we  occupied  in  Ostia  on  the 
Tiber;  where,  withdrawn  from  the  crowd,  we  were  recruiting 
from  the  fatigue  of  a  long  journey  before  our  voyage.  We 
then  conversed  alone  very  sweetly ;  and  '  forgetting  those  things 
which  were  behind  and  reaching  forth  unto  those  things  which 
are  before,'  we  were  inquiring  between  ourselves,  in  the  presence 
of  the  Truth,  which  Thou  art,  of  what  nature  the  eternal  life 
of  the  saints  would  be,  '  which  eye  hath  not  seen  nor  ear  heard, 
nor  hath  it  entered  into  the  heart  of  man.'  "  ^  At  least  it  is 
*  Aug.  Conf.,  bk.  ix.,  ch.  x. 


52  The  Days  of  the  Preparation 

certain  that  the  family  of  Mary  of  Nazareth  did  not  escape 
the  thrill  of  expectancy  and  hope  occasioned  by  the  voice  of 
John. 

3.  The  diflferences  between  the  narratives  of  the  Baptism 
have  caused  many  difficulties  that  cannot  be  easily  dispersed. 
St.  Matthew  reports  that  John  at  first  sought  to  prevent  the 
submission  of  Jesus  to  the  rite,  on  the  ground  that  his  relative 
from  Nazareth  was  superior  to  himself.  "  Assisted  by  his  pro- 
phetical endowment,  he  read  the  heart  of  this  man,  and  recognized 
that  there  no  consciousness  of  guilt  interrupted  the  communion 
between  Him  and  His  God."  ^  St.  John's  Gospel  sets  forth  the 
Baptizer  as  saying,  "  I  did  not  know  Him  myself;  but  He  who  sent 
me  to  baptize  .  .  .  said  to  me,  *  On  whomsoever  thou  shalt  see 
the  Spirit  descending  and  resting  upon  Him,  the  same  is  He  who 
baptizes  with  the  Holy  Spirit.'  "  In  view  of  St.  Matthew's  repre- 
sentation, the  Baptizer's  ignorance  of  Jesus  must  be  thought  to 
relate,  not  to  His  person,  but  to  His  office  as  the  Messiah.  There 
have  been  some  who,  from  an  early  period,  believed  that  neither 
Jesus  nor  His  friends  knew  that  He  was  the  Messiah  before 
Elias  anointed  Him  for  the  office.^  It  would  relieve  dogmatists 
of  no  little  embarrassment,  if  from  St.  John's  testimony  the 
inference  might  be  made  that  the  Baptist  bore  witness  to  the 
Messiah  without  administering  the  rite  of  baptism  unto  repent- 
ance. But  when  we  push  through  all  discrepancies  and  seek 
to  make  a  synthesis  of  the  details  recorded,  it  is  almost  beyond 
doubt  that,  when  Jesus  came  to  John  to  be  baptized,  the  Baptist 
recognized  Him,  and  because  of  his  reputation  for  purity,  or 
by  divination  of  the  spotless  character  of  this  member  of  the 
penitent  Israel,  he  hesitated  to  perform  the  rite  until  Jesus 
persuaded  him  of  its  propriety.  The  subsequent  or  accompany- 
ing scene  will  be  framed  differently,  according  to  one's  pre- 
possessions. But  it  is  probable,  in  the  highest  degree,  that  the 
symbolism  of  the  descending  dove  and  heavenly  voice  means 
that,  in  some  manner  convincing  to  both,  Jesus  became  the 
subject  of  a  fresh  Divine  anointing,  and  John,  as  well  as  He, 
had  the  sure  intuition  that  the  Man  of  Nazareth  was  the  Chosen 
One,  or  designated  Messiah. 

'  Weiss,   The  Life  of  Christ,  vol.  i.,  p.  320,  English  Ed. 
'Dialogue  with  Trypho,  viii.,  3,  no,  English  Ed.    Justin. 


Jesus  is  Baptized  by  John  53 

4.  According  to  St.  Luke,  Jesus  at  this  time  was  about  thirty 
years  of  age;  in  keeping  with  the  propriety  of  Hebrew  feehng, 
Jesus  may  have  waited  till  He  reached  the  minimum  limit  for 
the  beginning  of  the  Levitical  ministry  ^ ;  although  the  evangelist's 
phrase  (aoffst  ircav  rpiaxovTa)  is  an  elastic  one,  permitting 
a  margin  of  uncertainty.  By  definitely  stating  that  Jesus  came 
after  all  the  people  had  been  baptized,  the  evangelist  suggests 
that  His  inauguration  as  Messiah  took  place  in  the  presence  of  the 
disciples  of  John  after  the  great  crowds  had  departed.  The 
ordinary  and  formal  confession  of  sin  might  have  been  sub- 
stituted by  a  frank  unfolding  of  the  mind  of  Jesus,  so  that 
instinctively,  as  He  talked,  John  felt  that,  however  much  others 
needed  purification,  Jesus  at  least  could  receive  no  new  grace 
from  his  hands.  The  man  who  had  so  sternly  rebuked  the  pride 
of  tlie  Pharisees  in  their  Abrahamic  descent,  became  lowly  and 
gentle  in  the  presence  of  Jesus,  saying :  "  I  have  need  to  be 
baptized  by  Thee !  "  Perhaps  it  was  the  first  time  in  his  ex- 
perience that  John  was  daunted,  and  made  to  feel  himself  the 
moral  inferior  of  another.  This  discernment  and  penetration 
into  character  is  no  mere  fancy.  Again  and  again,  a  man  of 
great  scholarship  has  been  impressed  by  the  greater  dignity  of 
some  acquaintance  who  has  no  claim  to  learning  that  comes  from 
books;  sometimes  a  doctor  knows  intuitively  that  the  silent  or 
slow-speaking  patient  who  has  laboured  with  his  hands  is  a 
greater  personality  than  himself.  Contact  with  Jesus  made  most 
men  feel  His  spiritual  transcendence,  and  the  noble  Prophet 
of  the  Desert  could  not  escape  from  this  impression.  But  the 
greater  souls  are  ever  ready  to  learn  of  the  less ;  and  in  seeking 
to  be  baptized  by  His  kinsman,  Jesus  evinced  a  willingness  to  be 
guided  by  his  teaching.  However  diffident  John  felt,  he  was 
for  the  time  the  instructor  of  Jesus,  and  he  probably  suggested 
that  He  should  go  into  the  wilderness  and  follow  an  ascetic  rule 
of  life  preparatory  to  the  next  step.  Listening  to  the  Baptist's 
message  concerning  the  imminence  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  Jesus 
must  have  felt  His  heart  burn  within  Him,  though  He  ma>  not 
have  fully  realized  the  certainty  that  He  was  the  elected  Messiah. 
His  future  was  as  yet  undefined ;  He  was  waiting  for  the  Divine 
call. 

5.  The  motive  assigned  for  His  baptism  is  somewhat  vague — 
**  thus  it  behoves  us  to  fulfil  all  righteousness."     The  least  sig- 

'  Num.  iv.  3. 


54  The  Days  of  the  Preparation 

nificance  that  can  be  given  to  this  is  that  it  appeared  to  Him 
right — it  was  the  Divine  Will ;  therefore,  He  gladly  conformed. 
Attempts  to  emphasize  the  freedom  of  Jesus  from  sin,  and  conse- 
quent immunity  from  the  need  of  confession  and  pardon,  tend 
sometimes  to  encourage  the  illusion  that  He  never  experienced 
the  usual  weaknesses  and  failings  that  beset  men  in  this  life. 
While  it  would  be  most  incongruous  to  attribute  to  Him  gross 
sin  or  animalism,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  all  virtue,  even 
the  virtue  of  Jesus,  is  the  result  of  resistance  and  struggle. 
Even  the  Son  of  Man  had  to  exercise  constant  choice  between 
higher  and  lower  alternatives  of  means  and  motives ;  and  though 
all  the  circumstances  of  our  probation  were  not  mirrored  in 
His  preparation,  yet  He  was  tempted — tempted  in  all  points 
as  we  are.  And  while  it  seems  to  many  a  going  beyond  our 
real  knowledge  to  say  that  never  once  was  Jesus  betrayed  into 
making  choice  of  any  but  the  best  means  to  His  ends,  we  need 
not  hesitate  to  say  that  it  is  exceeding  the  bounds  of  sound 
judgement  to  aver  that  because  He  was  man  He  must  have 
fallen.  We  only  know  that  Jesus  had  the  appetites,  passions 
and  sensibilities  of  our  common  humanity;  and  the  result  of 
His  vigilant  struggle  was  that,  when  He  went  forth  to  be 
baptized  He  had  completed  the  subordination  of  all  these  natural 
feelings  and  tendencies  to  His  life-purpose  of  doing  God's  Will. 
At  the  Jordan,  as  in  the  Garden,  He  could  say :  "  Not  My 
will,  but  Thine  be  done  " ;  but  this  perfect  obedience  He  had 
learned  by  the  things  He  suffered.  As  the  question  of  His 
sinlessness  must  be  discussed  in  connection  with  later  stages 
of  His  life,  His  baptism  need  be  treated  only  as  an  act  of  self- 
identification  with  the  Jewish  race.  He  joined  in  the  national 
movement  initiated  by  John,  and  thus  gave  expression  to  His 
feeling  that  He  was  one  with  the  world — a  Brother  of  all  man- 
kind. The  Pharisees  resented  John's  universal  call  to  peni- 
tence and  baptism,  regarding  it  as  a  signal  humiliation  of  their 
order ;  Jesus  deemed  it  a  part  of  righteousness  to  comply.  Bap- 
tism was  the  ritual  expression  of  inward  purification;  it  sym- 
bolized renunciation  of  self-will,  and  the  entrance  upon  a  new 
life  of  preparation  for  God's  Reign.  In  the  case  of  Jesus,  submis- 
sion to  baptism  gave  concrete  form  to  the  renewed  dedication  of 
Himself  to  the  Kingdom  of  the  Father,  and  at  the  same  time 
showed  His  whole-souled  sympathy  with  the  needs  and  emotions 
of  the  people.     It  was  a  spiritual  palingenesis;  even  Jesus  was 


Jesus  is  Baptized  by  John  55 

born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit.  He  who  made  the  little  child 
a  symbol  of  discipleship,  became  Himself  in  manhood  as  a  little 
child — lowly  and  pure. 

6.  The  outward  baptism  by  John,  however,  was  subordinate 
to  the  momentous  spiritual  crisis  now  reached  in  the  inner 
experience  of  Jesus :  concomitant  with  it  was  the  theophany 
witnessed  by  both  actors  in  this  ceremony.  As  Jesus  rose  up 
from  the  water,  the  skies  appeared  to  open  and  God's  Spirit 
descended,  while  a  voice  rang  in  their  hearts  testifying  that  He 
was  the  beloved  Son — the  Son  in  Whom  the  Heavenly  Father 
delighted.  The  evangelists  cite  various  forms  of  this  Divine 
testimony ;  the  first  two  adopting  the  deutero-Isaiah's  description 
of  Jehovah's  Servant,^  the  third  quoting  from  the  Psalms  2;  but 
a  partial  account  of  this  confusion  may  be  that  the  ambiguity 
between  "  son  "  and  "  servant "  in  Greek  had  no  place  in  the 
Aramaic  sources  of  their  traditions.  St.  Luke  accentuates  the 
objectivity  of  the  dove's  appearance,  although  in  the  earlier 
gospels  the  dove  might  be  taken  as  a  simile.  It  is  possible  that 
literary  metaphor  had  been  transformed  by  repetition  till  it 
seemed  a  part  of  the  actual  occurrence.  Dogmatism,  either  of 
doubt  or  of  belief,  is  excluded  by  appreciation  of  the  mystery 
of  Nature  and  Spirit:  the  visible  universe  is  the  symbolism 
of  an  invisible  order;  and  it  is  possible  the  Creator's  thought 
might  be  suggested  by  the  phenomenon  of  the  dove,  as  it  is 
equally  possible  that  to  the  imagination  of  John  the  gentle  brood- 
ing character  of  Jesus  might  be  fitly  pictured  as  the  dove  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  hovering  over  Him.  The  essential  fact  of  this 
experience  is  that  God's  Spirit  actually  rested  upon  Jesus ;  into 
Him  there  passed  an  effluence  or  emanation  from  the  Divine 
Fount,  which  caused  His  life  to  unfold  new  energies  and  gracious 
ministries.  The  Spirit  of  God  is  God  Himself,  streaming  forth 
and  resting  in  beneficent  activity  upon  chosen  agents,  endowing 
them  with  mighty  inspiration  and  illumination.  The  realm  of 
human  life  is  full  of  mystery,  and  personality  is  developed  by 
receptivity  and  reciprocity,  not  by  isolation  and  exclusion.  To 
those  who  think  of  Jesus  as  the  Child  of  the  Spirit,  whose 
"  ego  "  was  the  Divine  Logos,  it  may  seem  difficult  to  explain 
the  need  of  this  spiritual  effusion.  These  correlative  factors 
in  the  life  of  the  Son  of  Man  (typical  man)  are  spoken  of  by 
*  Isa.  Ixii.  I.  *  Ps.  ii.  7- 


66  The  Days  of  the  Preparation 

St.  John  as  the  seed  and  the  chrism  {ffrrep^a  and  xP^ffpiot)  or 
anointing  of  the  Divine  Spirit.  The  seed  contains  the  life-force 
and  definite  type  which  regulates  the  form  of  growth ;  the  Divine 
chrism  educes  and  nourishes  the  inward  principle.  Although 
men  seem  to  stand  in  quasi-independence  of  God,  yet  they  are 
utterly  dependent  upon  the  Divine  power  to  uphold  them:  so, 
likewise,  Jesus  was  separate  from,  and  yet  most  intimately  de- 
pendent upon,  the  Heavenly  Father.  To  Him,  and  to  all  who 
follow  Him,  there  come  repeated  new-births  and  increasing  reve- 
lations. After  a  long  period  of  loyalty  in  obscure  and  monot- 
onous toils,  there  came  this  outpouring  of  the  Divine  Spirit — 
the  uprising  in  His  soul  of  a  Divine  power  which  augmented  His 
natural  energies.  He  had  been  growing  and  gaining  deepened 
insight  as  the  years  rolled  by,  acquiring  enlarged  capacity  for 
His  ministry ;  and  now  in  a  supreme  moment,  when  all  His  native 
gifts  and  faculties  were  prepared  to  receive  it,  there  came  this 
Pentecostal  advent  of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  fulness  unknown 
before,  sweeping  into  the  interior  recesses  of  His  nature,  and 
giving  Him  in  a  moment  the  crown  of  Perfect  Manhood.  "  Thee 
o'er  thyself  I  therefore  crown  and  mitre."  ^  God's  perfect  idea 
of  Manhood  was  born  in  Him;  He  realized  in  Himself  the 
Divine  Sonship  of  humanity.  That  is  His  difference  from  us; 
we  only  partially  attain  the  goal:  but  of  Him  the  Father  in 
heaven  could  testify,  "  This  day  have  I  begotten  Thee."  The 
quiet  years  of  His  life  at  Nazareth  had  resulted  in  the  accumula- 
tion of  forces  which,  at  the  Divine  touch,  burst  forth  in  flame, 
irradiating  His  person  as  the  Messianic  Son  of  God.  John  knew 
Him  now  as  the  Object  of  Divine  approval ;  while  Jesus  Himself 
felt  the  Father's  smile  alight  upon  Him.  Though  God's  Spirit 
had  wrought  within  Him  all  through  the  years.  He  now  became 
the  subject  of  a  new,  special  effusion  of  spiritual  power;  and  in 
His  exultation,  no  movement  of  self  disturbed  or  put  to  flight  the 
love  of  Grace  and  Truth. 

7.  The  open  skies  suggest  that  with  piercing  vision  He  now 
read  the  Divine  decree,  and  knew  Himself  to  be  the  fulfilment  of 
the  promise  spoken  in  prophecy  and  psalm.  His  call  had  come ; 
He  knew  that  He  was  the  Divine  Son.  One  of  Swedenborg's 
pregnant  fancies  was  that,  in  intercourse  with  men,  angels' 
thoughts  are  transmitted  through  the  moulds  of  earthly  memory, 
'  Purg.,  xxvii.,  142. 


Jesus  is  Baptized  by  John  57 

and  should  one  actually  be  caught  up  to  hear  their  higher  speech, 
like  St.  Paul,  he  would  find  such  Heavenly  wisdom  incommun- 
icable.^ And  it  was  in  the  mould  afforded  by  memory  of  ancient 
oracle  that  the  communication  now  came  to  Jesus  and  John  of 
the  voice  from  the  riven  heaven.  The  Man  of  Nazareth  came 
into  full  consciousness  that  in  a  unique  manner  He  was  the  be- 
loved Son  of  God;  the  fuller  meanings  of  His  ever-dominant 
Spirit  of  filial  submission  effloresced  in  His  mind  and  heart;  and 
it  was  new  in  Jesus,  just  as  the  flower  is  new  when,  after  growing 
and  budding,  it  at  last  pushes  through  its  calyx  and  consummates 
itself.  The  term  "  Son  "  is  no  metaphor  of  physical  or  meta- 
physical fact,  but  the  moral  truth  of  the  perfect  manhood  of 
Jesus.  Never  before  had  Jesus  realized  all  the  meaning  of  the 
Divine  Fatherhood;  and,  being  man,  the  consciousness  of  Son- 
ship  had  ebbed  and  flowed  in  the  tides  of  His  life:  henceforth, 
the  fulness  of  His  filial  relationship  poured  into  all  the  experiences 
of  His  life.  Sonship  was  a  fact  woven  into  every  act;  a  faith 
which  inspired  His  every  thought;  a  realized  idea  which,  like  a 
fountain,  poured  out  in  pure  streams  in  His  emotions.  The 
Spiritual  endowment  Jesus  received  at  baptism  gave  a  trans- 
parency to  tlie  material  media  of  life ;  He  saw  the  "  ideas  "  of 
God  which  sought  to  embody  themselves ;  while  a  citizen  of  earth 
He  was  conscious  of  Heaven,  and  looked  immediately  on  the 
works  of  His  Heavenly  Father.  In  all  His  subsequent  experi- 
ences the  Spirit  could  not  be  quenched  by  the  flesh,  and  to  His 
penetrating  insight  the  ideal  ground  of  life  lay  clearly  disclosed. 
The  full  explication  of  this  baptism  of  the  Spirit  had,  however, 
to  be  realized  through  the  new  temptations  that  assailed  Him  as 
He  struggled  to  apprehend  the  meaning  and  duty  of  the  Messiah. 
Before  passing  to  that  memorable  struggle,  we  may  note  that 
there  was  no  self-sufficiency  in  Jesus;  we  must  not  imagine 
Him  to  have  carried  in  Himself  from  the  beginning  all  that  He 
became;  He  lived  the  true  life  of  man,  and  in  certain  crucial 
moments  received  accessions  of  power  such  as  all  men  may 
obtain ;  and,  when  ripe  for  the  crisis,  He  was  anointed  with  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  passed  through  all  later  experiences  in  perfect 
correspondence  with  this  Divine  Person. 

*  Heaven  and  Hell,  p.  256. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  TEMPTATION  OF  THE  SON  OF  GOD 

I.  The  place  and  importance  of  the  baptism  of  Jesus  in  the 
preparation  for  His  active  ministry  were  apprehended  very  dis- 
tinctly by  our  earliest  evangelist.  It  was  the  investiture  of  Jesus 
with  spiritual  royalty  and  the  authentication  of  the  Divine  Son- 
ship  realized  in  His  humanity.  We  have  already  learned  caution 
in  speaking  of  the  mysteries  of  personality,  since,  in  our  own  im- 
perfect stage  of  manhood,  we  form  a  true  conception  of  personal 
life  only  by  a  process  of  idealization ;  we  project  the  traits  we  find 
essential  in  our  own  souls,  and  imagine  them  in  their  perfected 
and  balanced  harmony  in  a  typical  man.  Jesus  is  represented 
in  the  Gospels  and  in  the  Epistles  as  realizing  the  true  spirituality 
of  manhood ;  He  is  the  Spirit-anointed  man — the  one  Spirit-filled 
character  of  universal  history.  The  Christ  of  St.  Paul  is  the 
risen,  victorious  and  regnant  Spirit ;  He  has  accomplished  all  the 
stages  of  this  historic  pilgrimage  across  our  world ;  "  He  has  been 
determined  as  the  Son  of  God  with  power,  according  to  the  spirit 
of  holiness,  by  the  resurrection  from  the  dead."  But  the  Gospels 
give  us  glimpses  of  the  struggles  and  conflicts  that  preceded  this 
glorification ;  in  their  pages  we  see  the  warrior  Son  of  man 
fighting  towards  the  final  vanquishing  of  defeat  and  death.  The 
Spirit  of  holiness  that  so  signally  attested  the  Divine  Sonship 
of  Jesus  was  at  once  an  endowment  and  an  attainment.  The 
anointing  of  His  Manhood  by  the  Spirit  of  God  was  the  fruition 
of  thirty  years  of  resolute  obedience,  and  made  the  spiritual  side 
of  his  complex  nature  paramount  over  the  flesh.  This  divine 
chrism  did  not  relieve  Jesus  of  the  common  burden  and  struggle 
of  our  life ;  for  there  were  still  factors  of  evil  in  His  environment 
to  be  resisted  unto  blood ;  and  within  His  own  consciousness  the 
demands  of  the  flesh  had  to  be  controlled  by  a  conscience  which 
had  become  the  perfect  instrument  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  As,  by 
the  baptism  unto  repentance,  Jesus  sympathetically  avowed  His 
identification  with  a  race  of  sinners  and  became  historically  bound 
up  with  the  solidarity  of  universal  man,  so  by  the  Divine  anoint- 

58 


The  Temptation  of  the  Son  of  God  59 

ing  and  attestation  of  filial  relationship  with  the  Heavenly  Father 
He  lifted  mankind  into  reciprocity  with  the  life  of  God. 

2.  Our  consciousness  of  sin  and  of  incompleteness  in  the 
realization  of  God's  ideal  of  man  prevents  us  from  attaining  to  a 
total  comprehension  of  the  fellowship  of  Jesus  with  God.  The 
office  of  Messiah  is  sometimes  treated  as  implying  divineness  of 
character;  but  we  shall  fail  to  understand  such  union  between 
God  and  man  so  long  as  we  approach  the  fact  metaphysically  or 
merely  speculatively.  If,  however,  we  contemplate  it  ethically  and 
humanly,  we  shall  receive  fuller  and  fuller  light  upon  the  per- 
son of  Jesus.  What  we  term  the  divinity  of  Jesus  does  not  involve 
emancipation  from  human  trial;  it  does  not  leave  us  with  only  a 
docetic  Christ;  it  is  the  expression  of  the  truth  that  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  received  the  Spirit  of  God  into  His  life  by  moral  choice, 
and  wrought  out  His  destiny  as  the  Son  of  God.  Whatever  gifts 
of  mind  or  of  genius  may  have  formed  the  birthright  of  Jesus, 
we  must  conceive  of  His  moral  excellences  as  secured  humanly 
in  accordance  with  the  conditions  that  encircle  the  true  nature  of 
man.  When  we  use  the  term  "  humanly,"  however,  it  must  not 
be  imagined  that  we  imply  severance  from  God ;  man  becomes 
man  only  by  his  interaction  with  the  Divine  Spirit,  even  in  Jesus 
the  holiness  realized  through  personal  effort  was  due  to  God's 
working  in  Him  to  will  and  to  do  all  righteousness.  The  exact 
relationship  of  God's  Spirit  to  man's  spirit  is  barely  definable ;  in 
fact,  it  is  almost  inscrutable.  We  know  that  man  must  win  his 
personality  by  efforts  of  will ;  he  has  to  use  his  will  when  it  is  only 
a  potentiality  within  him;  and  yet  all  the  time  it  is  God's  Spirit 
entering  into  him  and  constituting  that  which  we  denote  by  the 
word  personality. 

One  of  the  notes  of  modern  thought  is  the  renewed  emphasis 
upon  this  fundamental  afifinity  for  Himself  with  which  God 
has  endowed  man.  Man  is  capax  dei:  the  uniqueness  of  Jesus 
is  that  God  became  human  in  Him ;  His  divinity  must  be  thought 
of  as  something  of  which  human  nature  was  capable  oi  be- 
coming at  its  highest.  But  this  Divine  Sonship,  although  uni- 
versally potential,  can  be  actually  developed  only  by  voluntary 
fellowship  with  the  Father.  The  power  to  realize  this  ideal  comes 
through  a  spiritual  anointing  from  above,  such  as  Jesus  received 
at  the  Jordan.  He  is  the  miracle  of  history,  since  He  alone  has 
embodied  perfectly  the  Logos  of  God;  and  only  by  becoming  par- 


60  The  Days  of  the  Preparation 

takers  of  the  Spirit  transmitted  by  Jesus  can  we  attain  any  meas- 
ure of  resemblance  to  Him.  Few,  if  any,  will  venture  to  deny 
that  Jesus  carried  human  nature  to  its  highest  pitch  of  moral 
grandeur ;  and  it  is  this  pitch  of  elevation  that  shows  us  the  per- 
fection of  qualities  belonging  both  to  God  and  man — love  and 
holiness.  There  is  no  suggestion  in  all  this  that  such  thoughts 
dispel  the  mystery  concerning  Jesus ;  the  problem  of  preexistence 
and  the  mode  of  the  Kenosis  which  constituted  the  initial  step 
in  this  historic  Incarnation  are  left  untouched;  we  seek  but  to 
apprehend  the  meaning  of  the  Divine  anointing  that  Jesus  re- 
ceived when  He  responded  to  John  the  Baptist's  appeal.  Al- 
though to  some  our  accentuation  of  this  crisis  of  the  Holy  Spirit's 
descent  upon  Jesus  will  seem  to  clothe  the  dogma  of  His  Divinity 
in  clouds,  yet  it  is  along  this  line  of  thought  that  the  mind  will 
perceive  the  humanness  of  that  in  Him  which  appears  most  super- 
human. Jesus  ever  wrought  as  man  in  the  might  of  the  Divine 
Spirit. 

3.  The  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  Jesus  was  not  intended 
to  result  merely  in  a  paroxysm  of  emotion ;  rather  did  it  signify 
a  Divine  equipment  for  the  work  of  His  ministry.  It  came  as  a 
summons  from  Heaven;  it  thrust  new  obligations  upon  Him;  it 
cleaved  His  life  asunder:  henceforth,  He  could  not  resume  the 
simple  narrow  duties  of  a  village  artizan.  For  years  He  had 
been  preparing  for  this  epoch;  although  with  marvellous  self- 
restraint  He  had  waited  for  the  voice  which  should  lay  a  Divine 
imperative  upon  all  His  powers  and  consecrate  Him  for  His 
life's  mission,  and  at  last  it  had  come.  But,  according  to  three 
evangelists,  the  call  He  heard  at  the  Jordan  not  only  imposed  a 
mighty  task ;  it  also  strangely  created  new  temptations.  Be- 
lieving Himself  set  apart  as  the  Messiah,  Jesus  had  to  think  out 
clearly  in  His  own  mind  the  true  nature  and  functions  of  His 
office.  The  Spirit  of  God  which  had  anointed  Him  drove  Him 
into  the  wilderness  by  an  irresistible  impulse.  "  When  Heaven 
is  about  to  confer  a  great  office  on  any  man,"  said  Mencius,  "  it 
first  exercises  his  mind  with  suffering,  and  his  sinews  and  bones 
with  toil.  It  exposes  his  body  to  hunger  and  subjects  him  to 
extreme  poverty.  It  confounds  his  undertakings.  By  all  these 
methods  it  stimulates  his  mind,  hardens  his  nature,  and  supplies 
his  incompetencies."  ^  These  words  of  the  remote  Chinese  sage 
'  Mencius,  bk.  vi.,  pt.  ii.,  xv.  2. 


The  Temptation  of  the  Son  of  God  61 

aptly  describe  the  preparation   that  Jesus  must  perforce  pass 
through,  ere  He  can  take  up  the  duties  of  His  exalted  office. 

But  fascinating  though  the  subject  of  the  Temptation  has 
proved,  there  is  a  perilous  facility,  in  treating  of  it,  that  one 
may  fall  into  self-contradiction,  irreverence  and  futility.  Let  us 
at  once  avow  our  belief  in  the  reality  of  the  Temptation,  while 
suspending  judgement  concerning  the  mode.  "  Evil  did  not 
lure  him.  There  was  no  stamp  of  moral  dcfaillance  on  that  clear 
brow."  ^  If  such  words  could  be  said  of  the  beloved  Elmslie,  with 
far  intenser  meaning  and  certainty  may  we  apply  them  to  Jesus. 
The  Story  of  the  Temptation  reads  almost  as  though  it  were  a 
parable  into  which  Jesus  precipitated  the  moral  trial  of  His  in- 
ward life.  It  is  so  inherently,  spiritually  true  that  it  could  be  in- 
terpreted as  summing  up,  in  the  figure  of  forty  days,  the  pro- 
longed struggles  of  a  whole  life ;  or,  indeed,  it  might  be  read  as  an 
apologue  of  universal  history.  But  while  this  is  so,  there  is  a 
certain  probability  that  Jesus  would  pass  through  a  severer  ordeal 
than  ever  before  as  He  stepped  from  the  Jordan  into  the  desert. 
The  evangelists,  whencesoever  they  obtained  their  Temptation 
tradition,  used  it  as  a  great  moral  lesson  for  all  men,  rather  than 
as  throwing  any  fresh  light  upon  the  history  of  Jesus  Christ.  In 
St.  Mark's  bare  narrative,  the  Temptation  is  represented  as 
going  on  all  through  the  sojourn  in  the  desert;  while  St.  Matthew 
states  that  the  three  temptations  were  presented  to  Jesus  after  the 
completion  of  the  forty  days;  and  both  these  ideas  are  found  in 
St.  Luke's  account,  wherein  the  three  temptations  are  presented 
as  the  climax  of  a  long-continued  struggle.  St.  John  makes  no 
mention  of  this  moral  conflict;  and,  by  his  enumeration  of  the 
sequence  of  the  days,  he  almost  excludes  the  possibility  of  this 
long  struggle  in  the  wilderness.  Such  an  exclusion  is  avoided 
by  supposing  that  the  deputation  from  Jerusalem  to  the  Baptist 
occurred  several  weeks  after  the  authentication  of  Jesus  as  the 
Messiah.  The  omission  of  the  Temptation  from  this  Gospel  was 
due  to  the  dominating  aim  of  the  evangelist,  which  ever  guided 
his  selection  of  incidents : — "  these  things  have  been  written  that 
ye  may  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  and  that 
believing  ye  may  have  life  in  His  name."  ^ 

4.  Those  who  interpret  the  Temptation  story  as  a  parable, 
escape  the  special  difficulties  arising  out  of  the  demonology  belong- 

*  Professor  Elmslie,  D.D.,  by  Sir  W.  Robertson  Nicoll. 
'  John  XX.  3of. 


62  The  Days  of  the  Preparation 

ing  to  its  Jewish  framework.  Judgement  may  be  suspended  over 
a  matter  so  obscure  as  the  personality  of  Satan  and  his  demon 
emissaries ;  we  know  too  little  of  the  world  of  spirits  to  be  able 
to  indulge  in  dogmatic  denial,  or  positive  affirmation.  The  ra- 
tionalism which  hastily  denied  the  credibility  of  Satan's  existence 
and  influence  upon  men  has  fallen  out  of  vogue,  and  scholars 
are  now  turning  with  scientific  calmness  to  the  investigation  of 
spiritualistic  phenomena.  While  men  who  pass  through  certain 
moral  experiences  will  not  lightly  reject  belief  in  devils  as  a 
primitive  superstition,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  Gospel  of 
God's  grace  is  independent  of  belief  in  the  personality  of  Satan. 
Jesus  accepted  Jewish  ideas  of  psychology  and  of  demoniacal  pos- 
session, just  as  He  adopted  the  astronomical  beliefs  of  His  age. 
At  least  it  is  open  to  discussion  whether,  in  His  various  sayings 
about  demons  and  their  chief,  Diabolus,  and  in  His  direct  address 
to  the  evil  spirits  in  cases  of  exorcism.  He  spoke  authoritatively 
and  with  special  trustworthy  insight  into  the  nature  of  evil,  or 
whether  He  was  not  limited  in  this  matter,  as  in  others,  by  Jew- 
ish contemporary  thought.  Admitting,  then,  the  legitimacy  of 
agnosticism  in  this  sphere,  our  attention  is  directed  all  the  more 
intensely  upon  the  mysterious  dualism  in  man's  life,  and  the 
tragic  struggle  between  the  flesh  and  the  Spirit  which  even  Jesus 
could  not  escape.  And  it  is  a  fact  of  the  biography  of  Jesus  that, 
in  the  forces  resident  in  the  lower  and  therefore  evil  suggestions 
which  visited  Him,  He  imagined  or  actually  perceived  the  assault 
of  a  personal  enemy.  An  illustration  of  this  is  given  in  connec- 
tion with  Simon's  confession  at  Caesarea  Philippi.  When  Jesus 
began  to  speak  of  His  approaching  Passion,  the  impetuous  dis- 
ciple took  hold  of  Him  and  remonstrated,  "  This  shall  never  be  to 
Thee ! "  But  Jesus  turned  with  lightning-like  rebuke,  "  Get 
thee  behind  Me,  Satan."  ^  In  the  unwitting  exclamation  of  His 
blundering  follower,  Jesus  felt  the  allurement  proffered  by  a 
ruthless  and  malignant  foe — a  Satanic  suggestion  to  evade  the 
Cross  and  seize  an  earthly  throne.  No  visible  devil  was  there  ;  but 
in  the  shock  between  the  temptation  which  fell  in  with  the  in- 
stincts of  the  flesh  and  the  stern  imperative  of  conscience,  Jesus 
felt  the  presence  of  His  enemy. 

5.     It  does  not  seem  credible  that  this  Temptation  story  is 
a  mythus  of  the  Church,  as  some  have  imagined;  for  the  Apos- 
'  Mark  viii.  32,  33 ;  Matt.  xvi.  22,  23. 


The  Temptation  of  the  Son  of  God  63 

tolic  Church  was  fully  convinced  that  Jesus  was  Divine — not  only 
the  subject  of  religious  faith,  but  also  the  object  of  worship;  and 
it  is  improbable  that  His  worshippers  would  invent  a  fictitious 
temptation.  The  natural  tendency  of  fancy,  where  it  was  unre- 
strained, would  surely  be  to  lift  Jesus  out  of  the  conditions  of 
human  frailty,  and  to  clothe  Him  with  attributes  of  unassailable 
holiness  and  wisdom.  That  such  a  tradition  of  temptation  should 
be  told  of  Jesus,  is  a  presumption  in  favour  of  its  truth;  for  it 
could  not  have  been  along  this  line  that  romance  would  work  in 
setting  forth  the  Christ.  There  is  ground  for  the  verdict  that  it 
is  from  Christ  Himself  that  the  narrative  comes;  and  He  prob- 
ably gave  it  to  the  disciples  in  much  the  same  form  as  that  in 
which  we  have  it  here.^  St.  Luke  represents  the  Lord  Jesus 
as  the  subject  of  continued  assaults  of  evil.  At  the  end  of  this 
trial  in  the  desert  the  devil  leaves  Him  only  until  another  con- 
venient season  comes,  and  at  the  close  of  His  ministry  Jesus  said 
to  His  disciples,  "  Ye  are  they  who  have  continued  (all  through) 
with  Me  in  My  temptaitions  "  {ev  toiS  Jtsipaff/xoi? /xov.y  How 
hard  these  sharp,  recurrent  crises  of  temptations  were,  may  be  felt 
in  the  exultant  anticipation  of  His  voctory  over  the  tempter's  final 
siege  of  His  will — "  the  prince  of  this  world  cometh,  and  hath 
nothing  in  Me."  ^  Such  allusions  to  the  dark  passages  of  Christ's 
inner  experience  make  it  seem  plausible  that  all  the  temptations 
were  summed  up  in  a  parabolic  form  for  the  instruction  of  His 
disciples.*  While  the  temptations  were  real,  the  narrative  is  full 
of  symbolism,  Satan  himself,  the  stones,  the  wing  of  the  temple, 
the  high  mountain,  are  parts  of  the  framework  of  the  parable. 
It  is,  however,  inherently  probable  that  Jesus  did  actually  meet 
and  wrestle  with  evil  immediately  after  His  baptism;  the  leaven 
of  John's  asceticism  may  have  helped  to  confuse  the  issues  pre- 
sented by  His  own  call ;  and  for  many  days  Jesus  wandered  in 
the  wilderness  amid  the  wild  beasts,  struggling  to  clarify  His  own 
conception  of  the  nature  of  the  Messianic  work  to  which  He 

*  Plummer,  Inter.  Com.  St.  Luke.  *Luke  xxii.  28, 
'John  xiv.  30. 

*  Professor  W.  M.  Ramsay  expresses  his  belief  that  the  story  of  the 
Temptation  is  parabolic.  "  The  authority  obviously  is  the  account  given 
by  Himself  to  His  disciples ;  and  we  are  told  that  '  without  a  parable 
spake  He  not  to  them.'  How  far  the  details  partake  of  the  nature  of  a 
parable,  intended  to  make  transcendental  truth  intelligible  to  the  simple 
fishermen,  we  cannot  precisely  tell,  and  no  man  ought  to  dogmatize.  But 
no  one  can  doubt  as  to  the  essential  truth  that  Ues  under  the  narrative." 
The  Education  of  Christ,  p.  3iff. 


64  The  Days  of  the  Preparation 

was  divinely  summoned.  The  populace  looked  for  a  Christ  who 
would  be  their  King;  John  foretold  the  coming  of  the  Christ  in 
judgement;  but  it  was  given  to  Jesus  to  think  out  and  realize 
the  second  Isaiah's  ideal  of  the  Suffering  Servant  who  should 
become  very  high.  And  it  could  not  but  be  that  such  a  revolu- 
tion as  this  implied,  was  only  attained  after  resolute  and  pro- 
found thought  combined  with  self-renunciation. 

6.  Was  it  then  possible  for  Jesus  to  sin  ?  The  bare  suggestion 
comes  to  many  a  mind  with  a  shock  as  something  daringly  ir- 
reverent. Our  difficulty  lies  in  the  fact  that  Jesus  has  passed  out 
of  the  category  of  historical  statement  into  an  abiding  spiritual 
relationship  with  all  men.  He  is  not  now  one  of  the  saints ;  He  is 
divine.  There  is,  therefore,  an  inherent  difficulty  in  stripping 
our  minds  of  beliefs  which,  in  many  instances,  have  grown  after 
struggle  with  doubts,  and  which  have  been  influenced  by  experi- 
ence. It  requires  no  little  intellectual  agility  to  get  back  to  the 
Jesus  of  history,  and  see  plainly  the  steps  of  His  preparation. 
Yet  this  is  demanded  of  us  in  our  effort  to  reconstruct  His 
earthly  life ;  we  must,  for  a  time,  look  at  Jesus  not  as  an  object  of 
worship,  but  as  Himself  a  subject  of  religious  development.  Even 
those  who  conceive  of  Him  as  simply  human,  and  look  upon  the 
doctrine  of  His  Divinity  as  an  ecclesiastical  figment,  are  not  able 
to  imagine  that  one  who  has  given  the  world  its  highest  ideal 
of  holiness  was  Himself  drawn  aside  by  lust.  Jesus  was  un- 
doubtedly insensible  to  the  squalid  charms  of  low  vices;  on  the 
other  hand,  His  temptations,  however  refined,  were  real  ones, 
and  were  repelled  in  human  ways.  Inasmuch  as  we  value  His 
humanity,  we  dare  not  say  that  He  could  not  sin  {non  potuit 
peccare)  ;  but  since  He  was  made  perfect  through  suffering.  He 
was  able  not  to  sin  {potiiit  non  peccare).  Only  as  He  learned 
sympathy  in  the  school  of  moral  trial  could  He  become  fitted  to  be 
the  Great  High  Priest  of  Humanity.  However  different  from 
us  in  degree,  still  His  life  was  essentially,  perfectly  human, 
and  the  tests  to  which  He  submitted  touched  Him  in  a  living 
way  at  the  very  citadel  of  his  consciousness.  With  this  assur- 
ance of  His  genuine  humanity,  we  must  rest  satisfied;  the  mys- 
tery of  His  personality  forces  us  to  be  reticent;  it  is  impossible 
for  us  to  boldly  answer  "  Yes  "  or  "  No  "  to  the  question  con- 
cerning His  peccability;  nor  should  we  be  forced  or  allured  into 
greater  definiteness,  so  long  as  our  knowledge  remains  so  very 


The  Temptation  of  the  Son  of  God  65 

limited.  In  dealing  with  the  temptation  of  Jesus,  we  have  to 
face  the  two  perils  that  meet  us  whenever  we  seek  for  an  in- 
tellectual presentation  of  the  Incarnation — viz.,  Docetism  on  the 
one  hand,  which  reduces  the  struggle  to  a  mere  make-believe ;  and 
Naturalism,  on  the  other,  which  insists  upon  eliminating  the 
Divine  Spirit  from  the  phenomena  of  Christ's  experience.  It  was 
a  real  conflict  with  evil  in  which  Jesus  engaged:  whatever  the 
form  of  the  trial.  He  knew  that  He  was  wrestling  with  a  force 
that  was  in  antagonism  to  God.  The  tests  to  which  He  submitted 
strengthened  His  righteous  will  and  consummated  His  moral 
union  with  the  Divine.  Noble  souls  are  not  immune  from  the 
liability  to  be  tempted :  the  paradox  of  ethics  is  that  elevation  of 
purpose  intensifies  the  trial,  even  while  it  releases  the  soul  from 
bestial  impulses;  but  the  self-indulgent  man  scarcely  feels 
aught  of  painful  effort  in  choosing  his  way.  Soul-culture  in- 
volves a  corresponding  development  of  susceptibility  to  pain. 
Love  is  the  highest,  noblest  spring  of  action,  which  sums  up  the 
whole  hierarchy  of  good  motives ;  yet,  it  is  love  itself  that  becomes 
a  temptation  to  adopt  morally  ambiguous  means  in  order  to 
secure  the  well-being  of  the  beloved.  It  is  clear,  then,  that  the 
elevation  of  the  Manhood  of  Jesus  did  not  free  Him  from  the 
struggle  with  evil;  in  the  wilderness  He  began  a  contest  that 
ended  on  the  Cross;  Jesus  dealt  with  evil  in  its  essential  prin- 
ciple as  a  world- force  at  variance  with  the  will  of  God;  and 
before  He  could  achieve  the  reconciliation  of  God  and  the  world, 
He  had  to  bring  His  own  humanity  into  complete  harmony  with 
the  Divine  Will. 

7.  The  Spirit  of  God  driveth  {sxftaXkn)  Him  into  the  wilder- 
ness to  be  tempted  of  the  devil :  the  struggle  was  full  of  pas- 
sionate intensity;  and  through  the  symbolism  Jesus  used  to  set 
forth  this  experience,  we  dimly  discern  the  giddy  heights  of  emo- 
tion and  dazzling  ambitions  that  visited  His  soul  at  this  crisis. 
The  temptation  may  have  begun  with  a  contest  between  the  ascetic 
ideal  which  He  received  from  John  and  the  dictates  of  His  own 
judgement.  The  call  of  the  Spirit  to  the  Messianic  office  intro- 
duced a  new  factor  into  the  serene  depths  of  the  Mind  of  Jesus ; 
instantly  the  fires  that  had  slumbered  within  Him  leapt  up.  But 
to  adjust  Himself  to  His  destiny.  He  had  to  conquer  all  uncer- 
tainties and  fight  against  all  the  promptings  of  the  flesh.  Doubt- 
less, anticipations  of  His  Messiahship  had  flitted  across  His  mind 


66  The  Daj^s  of  the  Preparation 

in  the  previous  years;  but  now  the  clear,  certain  call  had  come 
about  which  He  could  never  doubt  again.  "  Such  transitions  are 
ever  full  of  pain :  thus  the  eagle,  when  he  moults,  is  sickly,  and  to 
attain  his  new  beak  must  harshly  dash  off  the  old  one  upon  the 
rocks."  ^  The  ancient  prophets  had  sometimes  felt,  under  the 
thrill  of  Divine  inspiration,  as  if  a  Spirit  had  clutched  them  by 
the  hair  and  carried  them  on  strong  pinions  through  the  vast 
abysses  of  air.  This  inebriation  of  soul  is  due  to  those  alien  ele- 
ments that  struggle  against  the  better  self;  and  the  conqueror's 
calm  can  be  gained  only  through  hours  of  storm  and  discord. 
The  agony  of  Jesus  may  have  been  caused,  in  part  at  least,  by 
His  prior,  partial  acquiescence  in  the  popular  notions  of  a  war- 
like Messiah,  which  clashed  with  the  new  conception,  which  came 
at  His  complete  anointing  with  God's  Spirit,  of  a  mighty  spiritual 
work  which  He  had  to  undertake.  Jesus  had  to  determine,  by 
His  own  free  choice,  which  of  these  opposing  ideals  He  would 
henceforth  pursue;  and  in  the  struggle  He  realized  that  it  was  the 
decisive,  though  not  the  final,  battle  of  true  humanity  against  all 
that  is  lower  than  the  highest.  The  conventional  notion  of  the 
Messiah  had  in  it  elements  of  greatness,  but  it  was  limited,  na- 
tional and  military;  the  ideal  that  Jesus  set  up  was  universal, 
humane  and  just.  This  was  the  definite  choice  of  alternatives 
which  Jesus  made  on  the  very  threshold  of  His  public  ministry. 
The  dovelike  spirit  that  descended  upon  Him  neither  dissolved 
nor  reconciled  these  antagonisms:  rather  did  it  throw  them  into 
severe  and  lucid  antithesis,  so  that  the  election  of  one  meant 
the  absolute  rejection  of  the  other.  Vague  premonitions  may 
have  come  to  Jesus,  as  He  made  His  choice  of  His  purely  spiritual 
mission,  of  that  antagonism  which  would  be  aroused  against  Him 
in  those  various  sects  and  parties  which  prided  themselves  upon 
their  patriotism. 

8.  The  Heavenly  voice  at  the  Jordan-side  testified  of  the 
Divine  filiation  of  Jesus ;  and  the  temptations  that  visited  His 
mind  turned  upon  His  consciousness  of  being  the  Son  of  God; 
the  first  being  a  subtle  suggestion  that  He  should  authenticate 
this  Divine  relationship  by  an  arbitrary  and  egotistic  exercise 
of  power.  He  may  at  first  have  sought  to  imitate  John's  example 
of  fasting,  and  the  pangs  of  hunger  may  have  been  actually  felt 
by  Him,  thus  giving  occasion  for  the  temptation  to  work  a  miracle. 
'  Carlyle,  Sartor  Resartus,  chap.  vii. 


The  Temptation  of  the  Son  of  God  67 

The  idea  of  Divine  Sonship  is  one  of  the  distinctive  gifts  of  the 
Christian  reHgion ;  it  had  been  vaguely  apprehended  by  other 
teachers,  but  Jesus  reahzed  it  in  his  own  consciousness,  and 
communicated  it  to  the  world  by  His  life.  He  did  not  depart  from 
the  norm  of  human  nature  and  set  up  a  quasi-independence  of 
God,  but  He  simply  lived  out  the  life  of  faith  in  the  Heavenly 
Father.  God  gives  life,  and  life  at  its  highest  can  be  imported 
and  sustained  only  by  the  word  of  God.  "  Man  shall  not  live 
by  bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  that  issues  from  the  mouth  of 
God."  Being  tempted  to  presume  upon  His  consciousness  of 
Divine  Sonship,  Jesus  adopted  the  attitude  of  true  manhood  as 
one  who  received  everything  through  the  grace  of  the  Heavenly 
Father.  He  was  loyal  to  the  ideal  of  humanity;  He  preferred 
the  Cross  to  a  faithless  escape  from  suffering.  Swift  were  the 
alternations  of  triumph  and  renewed  conflict  in  the  life  of 
Jesus;  the  spiritual  rapture  of  a  Divine  anointing  gave  place 
to  an  experience  of  agonizing  trial.  It  has  been  suggested 
that,  having  become  conscious  of  the  call  to  be  the  Messiah,  the 
suggestion  came  to  Him  that  miraculous  power  was  needed  to 
substantiate  His  claim  to  that  office;  but  He  refused  to  ask  for 
such  a  charisma.  The  form  of  the  temptation  will  be  interpreted 
variously  by  different  minds,  but  certain  essential  features  in 
Christ's  manner  of  repelling  it  are  clearly  enough  defined  for  all. 
Jesus  demonstrated  His  trust  in  the  sovereignty  of  God;  that 
man's  life  in  the  Divine  reign  is  not  physical  alone,  but  spiritual, 
needing  to  be  nourished  with  the  word  of  God.  The  true  spirit 
of  the  anointed  man  is  seen  in  that  He  who  subsequently  satis- 
fied the  hungry  multitudes,  now  voluntarily  submitted  Himself 
to  the  pangs  of  hunger,  trusting  absolutely  to  the  providence  of 
the  Heavenly  Father. 

9.  The  triumph  over  one  form  of  temptation  occasions  a  re- 
action from  which  springs  a  further  trial; — having  refused  to 
distrust  the  goodness  of  His  Father,  He  is  next  urged  to  make  an 
irrational  display  of  trust.  Faith  is  in  danger  of  being  lured  to- 
ward the  gulf  of  fanaticism ;  He  is  tempted  to  expect  from  God 
an  abnormal  and  extra-human  display  of  Providence.  While  He 
is  absorbed  in  the  thought  of  the  Messianic  mission  to  which  He 
is  called,  the  suggestion  arises  that  He  should  inaugurate  His 
movement  by  the  ostentation  of  over-faith— illustrated  by  the 
notion  of  plunging  from  some  giddy  height  of  a  temple- wing.    A 


68  The  Daj^s  of  the  Preparation 

higher  voice,  however,  counselled  refusal  to  do  aught  that  would 
violate  the  ordered  course  of  human  life,  or  endanger  the  spirit 
of  filial  submission  to  God's  known  laws.  "  Thou  shalt  not  tempt 
the  Lord  thy  God."  Thus  we  see  that  even  this  Son  of  God  was 
tempted  to  leap  into  the  Pharisaic  abyss  of  spiritual  pride.  Had 
Jesus  yielded,  He  could  never  afterwards  have  said,  "  I  am  the 
way,  the  truth,  and  the  life."  Before  He  could  teach  the  laws 
of  the  Kingdom,  He  realized  them  by  perfect  obedience ; — having 
Himself  walked  in  the  way  of  God,  He  became  able  to  discover  it 
to  man.  From  the  very  beginning,  Jesus  refused  a  religion  based 
on  miracle ;  the  reign  of  God  in  man  consisted  not  in  physical,  but 
in  moral  power — in  righteousness  and  peace.  His  victory  over 
this  subtle  temptation  shows  His  acquiesence  in  the  limitations 
and  conditions  of  true  humanity.  Jesus  definitely  refused  tc 
lift  Himself  out  of  the  normal  state  of  man's  dependence  upon 
God,  and  also  rejected  every  suggestion  that  the  Son  of  God 
might  presume  upon  the  fact  of  the  Heavenly  Father's  love  for 
Him.    Jesus  sought  and  realized  the  true  ideal  of  the  life  of  man. 

10.  Yet  another  temptation,  placed  second  by  St.  Luke,  was 
the  world's  enticement  to  seek  a  kingdom  based  on  ambition  and 
pride — that  is,  to  establish  the  Messianic  reign  by  following  the 
popular  expectation.  The  Kingdom  which  John  heralded  as  "  at 
hand,"  was  conceived  by  the  Baptist  as  a  renascent  Israel — God's 
Kingdom,  and  therefore  righteous;  but  its  form  was  material,  its 
scope  national,  and  its  rule  despotic.  The  visionary  sweep  of 
such  sovereignty  invested  in  an  earthly  Zion  had  attractions  for 
all  dreamers ;  and  besides,  it  harmonized  with  many  of  the  an- 
cient oracles  read  in  the  sacred  books.  One  of  the  first  demands, 
then,  upon  the  thought  of  one  who  believed  Himself  called  to 
be  the  Messiah,  was  for  the  formulation  of  Israel's  true  relation 
to  the  Gentiles.  Could  the  Messianic  rule  over  all  nations  be 
won  save  by  violence  ?  Herein  was  evinced  the  marvellous  origi- 
nality of  Jesus:  Judaism  has  had  other  claimants  to  the  Mes- 
siahship,  but  no  other  like  Him.  Realizing  Himself  to  be  the 
Spiritual  Son  of  God,  He  sought  to  avoid  all  earthly  self- 
exaltation,  and  to  secure  His  Kingdom  by  love  and  sacrifice.  The 
choice  of  this  ideal  was  not  made  without  agony  and  doubt;  the 
Temptation  story  reveals  the  inward  conflict  through  which  Jesus 
passed.  He  saw  that  outward  pomp  and  military  parade,  alike 
with  supremacy  won  by  physical  miracle,  were  essentially  false, 


The  Temptation  of  the  Son  of  God  69 

contrary  to  the  mind  of  God:  perhaps  the  struggle  was  in  the 
effort  to  see  this,  rather  than  in  the  rejection  of  the  lower  method 
when  it  had  once  been  seen.  Through  His  spiritual  anointing, 
Jesus  had  become  conscious  of  His  kingly  qualities  and  predes- 
tined sovereignty;  but,  as  He  reflected  upon  the  external  role  of 
Messiahship  suggested  by  John,  He  saw  it  was  an  unsubstantial 
mirage;  the  only  real  and  abiding  Empire  of  the  Spirit  must  be 
founded  on  love  and  sacrifice.  The  life  that  Jesus  elected  to  pur- 
sue had  no  meretricious  display ;  it  was  simply  the  life  of  faith, 
and  hope,  and  love.  We  cannot  say  that  Jesus  foresaw  the  fact 
of  the  Cross ;  but,  in  principle  and  method.  He  made  in  the  desert 
His  choice  of  the  sacrificial  way  that  was  ultimately  realized  in  the 
Tragedy  of  Calvary.  Jesus  made  the  absolute  renunciation  of 
self,  beating  down  the  appetites  of  the  fleshly  nature,  crushing 
all  the  proud,  rash  impulses  that  were  contrary  to  God's  appoint- 
ments, and  rejecting  all  personal  ambition.  His  meat  and  drink 
were  to  do  the  Will  of  God.  "  I  think  I  understand  somewhat  of 
human  nature,"  Napoleon  is  recorded  to  have  said,  "  and  I  tell 
you  all  these  [warlike  heroes]  were  men  and  I  am  a  man,  but  not 
one  is  like  Him ;  Jesus  Christ  was  more  than  man.  Alexander, 
Csesar,  Charlemagne,  and  I  founded  great  empires ;  but  upon 
what  did  the  creations  of  genius  depend?  Upon  force.  Jesus 
alone  founded  His  Empire  upon  love,  and  to  this  very  day  mil- 
lions would  die  for  Him."  When  the  Holy  Spirit  descended  upon 
Jesus,  He  was  precipitated  into  a  struggle  against  all  the  prompt- 
ings and  suggestions  that  sprang  from  the  Spirit  of  His  age. 
But  the  dove  triumphed  over  the  fierce,  malignant  forces  of  the 
world,  and  "  Jesus  returned  in  the  power  of  the  Spirit  into 
Galilee." 


BOOK  II 

THE  ANNUNCIATION  OF  THE  KINGDOM 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   MORNING   STAR   AND   THE  SUN  OF 
RIGHTEOUSNESS 

I.  Jesus  of  Nazareth  and  John  the  Baptist  were  contempo- 
raries ;  yet  while  the  ministry  of  Jesus  began  under  the  sanction 
of  the  great  Baptizer,  the  latter  became  eclipsed  by  the  spiritual 
splendour  of  Christ's  abiding  work.  Lovers  of  paradox,  however, 
still  speak  of  John  as  the  master,  and  of  Jesus  as  his  disciple. 
Their  relationship  and  the  mutual  influence  of  the  one  upon  the 
other  are  difficult  to  estimate,  because  He  who  came  after  John 
was  before  him.  The  tradition  embodied  in  our  Gospels  repre- 
sents the  Baptist's  work  as  introductory  and  subordinate  to  the 
ministry  of  Jesus:  one  baptized  with  the  Spirit,  the  other  with 
water.  The  incoherences  of  the  Gospel  narratives  have  provoked 
unimaginative  critics  to  stigmatize  them  as  historically  unreliable. 
Had  it  not  been  for  the  testimony  of  Josephus  to  the  profound 
impression  made  by  John  upon  Israel,  it  is  probable  that  the  New 
Testament  records  would  have  been  treated  as  a  mist  of  popular 
rumour  and  untrustworthy  products  of  the  cycle  of  legends  which 
Venus,  the  morning  star,  has  evoked  in  many  lands.  For  the 
New  Testament  resolutely  treats  John  as  the  forerunner  of  the 
Light  of  the  World,  the  herald  of  a  greater  luminary ;  indeed,  he 
himself  is  said  to  have  acknowledged  the  superiority  of  Jesus, 
and  to  have  testified,  "  He  that  cometh  after  me  is  mightier  than 
I."  Josephus,  however,  prevents  the  critics  from  treating  John 
as  a  mythological  personage,  convincing  them  that  a  concrete, 
real  history  lies  behind  the  Gospel  tradition,  although  he  makes  no 
mention  whatever  of  the  Baptist's  Messianic  hopes  and  predic- 
tions. This  omission  on  the  part  of  the  Jewish  historian  is  natu- 
rally sufficient,  in  the  view  of  many,  to  negate  all  the  affirmations 
of  the  Gospels.  However,  we  ought  to  be  grateful  to  Josephus 
for  reassuring  us  concerning  the  historicity  of  John's  appearance ; 
and  thus  it  ought  not  to  be  wholly  impossible  to  reconstruct,  out 
of  the  materials  given,  some  fair  conception  of  the  Baptist's  per- 
son and  work.    In  attempting  this  task,  though  never  so  briefly, 

73 


74  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

our  method  must  be  one  of  impressionism,  using  the  imagination 
to  collect  the  disjecta  membra  which  survive  all  criticism  and  in- 
tegrate them  anew  into  the  framework  of  the  whole.  But  while 
Jesus  may  be  remembered  by  the  work  He  did  apart  from  John, 
the  Baptist  takes  his  place  in  our  mental  picture  of  the  past, 
because  of  his  connection  with  the  beginnings  of  the  ministry  of 
Jesus. 

2.  Any  attempt  to  understand  the  relationship  between  John 
and  Jesus  necessitates  consideration  of  certain  chronological  data 
presented  in  the  Gospels.  Even  if  it  were  true  that  philosophy  may 
ignore  history,  no  student  of  the  Christian  religion  can  do  so; 
for  the  ideas  that  dominate  the  New  Testament  came  to  men,  not 
as  naked  abstractions,  but  clothed  and  dramatized  in  the  events 
and  experiences  of  real  human  lives.  While  it  may  be  impossible 
to  attain  to  chronological  accuracy,  still  the  delicate  and  difficult 
task  of  examining  details  and  weighing  historical  evidence  will 
result  in  a  clearer  apprehension  of  the  great  moments  of  evangelic 
history.  Our  general  aim  is  to  set  out  in  bold  relief  the  chief 
facts  relating  to  the  work  of  Jesus  and  John,  and  then  to  group 
our  materials  so  that  the  sequences  and  acts  assume  an  intelligible 
order.  The  majority  of  readers,  however,  feel  but  slight  interest 
in  the  minutiae  of  research:  they  ask  only  for  results;  and  we 
shall  seek  to  meet  this  expectation  as  succinctly  and  clearly  as 
possible.  It  is  singularly  unfortunate  that  St.  Luke's  sixfold  at- 
tempt to  define  the  date  of  John's  appearance  is  rendered  ineffec- 
tual through  our  ignorance  as  to  whether  he  intended  the  fif- 
teenth year  of  Tiberius  to  be  counted  from  the  death  of  Augustus, 
or  from  their  association  as  joint-rulers.  After  an  examina- 
tion of  the  evidence,  Sir  William  Ramsay  has  concluded  that 
John  appeared  announcing  the  coming  of  Christ  in  the  later 
months  of  the  year  a.d.  25,  while  some  have  dated  the  ministry 
of  John  about  a.d.  27;  and  now  Colonel  Mackinlay  oflfers  good 
reasons  for  placing  it  as  early  as  April  in  the  same  year  as  that 
suggested  by  Ramsay.  The  discussion  still  ranges  between  a.d.  25 
and  27 ;  happily  the  terminus  a  quo  is  of  less  importance  than  the 
order  of  sequence  in  the  development  of  John's  preaching  minis- 
try. The  rumours  of  the  Baptist's  work  may  have  synchronized 
with  the  awakening  of  new  spiritual  movements  in  the  mind  of 
Jesus; — may,  in  fact,  have  occasioned  the  changes  in  the  life  of 
our  Lord.     The  Carpenter  is  conscious  of  that  Wind  of  God 


The  Sun  of  Righteousness  75 

which  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  at  the  inward  prompting  of 
the  Spirit  He  goes  out  to  join  the  penitents  by  the  Jordan-side. 

3.  It  has  already  been  suggested  that  the  ascetic  ideal  of 
John  together  with  the  popular  Messianism  of  that  age  caused 
Jesus  to  be  plunged  into  prolonged  mental  struggle,  as  the 
Spirit  led  Him  into  a  universal,  spiritual  and  more  genial  con- 
ception of  truth  and  of  the  Divine  purpose.  The  next  step  is  to 
try  to  understand  the  subsequent  relationship  between  John  and 
Jesus.  Were  we  dependent  solely  upon  the  two  first  evangelists, 
we  might  imagine  that  Jesus  waited  until  John  was  put  in  prison 
before  He  began  an  independent  mission,  since  they  say,  "  Now 
after  that  John  was  delivered  up,  Jesus  came  into  Galilee  preach- 
ing the  Gospel  of  God ;"  ^  but  the  Fourth  Gospel  gives  us  to 
understand  that  both  ministries  proceeded  side  by  side  for  some 
time.=^  St.  Luke's  account  of  Christ's  answer  to  the  inquiry  that 
John  sent  from  Machserus,  also  discloses  a  considerable  pro- 
gramme of  work  already  accomplished.^  With  characteristic 
laconicism,  St.  Mark  compresses  into  a  single  sentence  all  he  has 
to  say  of  the  associated  ministries  of  Jesus  and  John.  For  a 
time  the  Baptist's  renown  eclipsed  the  unobtrusive  beginnings  of 
Christ's  work :  still,  it  is  evident  that  for  a  season  they  carried  on 
separate,  yet  connected,  missions  in  proximity  to  each  other, 
which  led  to  the  notable  dispute  about  fasting  between  their 
respective  disciples.*  The  conviviality  of  Jesus,  so  offensively 
exhibited  at  the  feast  in  Levi's  house,  may  have  given  occasion 
for  this  public  remonstrance,  and,  if  this  were  so,  several  months 
had  elapsed  since  Jesus  began  to  preach.  After  the  initial  steps 
in  Galilee,  Jesus  returned  south  to  the  Passover;^  then  tarried 
awhile  in  Judaea,  where  a  propaganda  of  baptism  was  carried  on 
at  ^non.  The  Baptist  was  far  too  magnanimous  to  feel  envy ; 
his  disciples,  however,  did  not  restrain  their  jealousy.  The 
Pharisees,  foreseeing  by  this  time  that  Jesus  was  destined  to  be  a 
worse  enemy  to  them  than  John  himself,  fanned  the  flame  by 
invidious  comparisons.  Jesus  was  grieved  by  this  petty  rwalry, 
and  to  put  an  end  to  it  turned  to  go  north  again.  The  episode 
of  the  plucking  of  the  corn  on  the  Sabbath-day,  which  occurred 
on  this  journey,  while  it  foreshadows  the  final  breach  of  Jesus 

*  Matt.  iv.  12 ;  Mark  i.  4.  '  Luke  vii.  18-23. 

'John  iii.  22-30.  *Matt.  ix.  14-17. 

'John  iii.  22-30. 


76  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

with  contemporary  orthodoxy,  is  precious  to  the  chronologist, 
as  giving  a  fixed  point  in  the  sequence  of  Christ's  ministry.  Al- 
though the  first-fruits  had  been  offered  at  the  recent  Passover,  the 
corn-harvest  had  not  yet  been  gathered  in ;  and,  as  no  mention 
is  made  of  John's  incarceration,  we  must  suppose  that  he  was 
still  at  liberty,  although  it  must  have  been  but  a  brief  while — 
a  few  days  at  most — that  remained  for  the  continuance  of  his 
preaching.  Thus,  from  those  various  data,  we  infer  that  the 
first  six  months  of  the  ministry  of  Jesus  overlapped  the  last  six 
months  of  the  work  of  John  the  Baptist. 

4.  The  message  of  both  these  great  preachers  was  summed 
up  in  the  annunciation  of  the  imminence  of  "  the  Kingdom  " ; 
but  while  in  some  measure  they  had  a  common  aim,  they  used 
different  methods  and  formed  distinct  communities.  The  con- 
ventional belief  is  that  John  conceived  of  himself  simply  as  the 
forerunner  of  Jesus;  but,  if  this  were  so,  he  ought  not  to  have 
continued  his  work  independently.  The  Gospels  narrate  the  most 
explicit  testimonials  of  John  to  Jesus,  representing  him  to  have 
borne  witness  to  the  incontrovertible  sign  of  the  Spirit  received 
at  His  baptism;  the  fourth  evangelist,  in  particular,  declares 
that  the  Baptist  pointed  Jesus  out  to  the  multitudes  as  the  Lamb 
of  God,  testifying  also  that  although  He  was  subsequent  in  time, 
He  was  marked  by  spiritual  priority.  It  is  astonishing,  there- 
fore, that  John,  instead  of  ceasing  his  separate  ministry,  con- 
tinued as  he  had  begun,  and  so  formed  a  definite  school  char- 
acterized by  ascetic  discipline  and  a  distinct  liturgy ;  ^  and  years 
after  the  Crucifixion — even  during  the  apostolate  of  St.  Paul — 
the  disciples  of  John  remained  a  sect  ignorant  of  the  baptism  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.^  The  later  developments  of  the  school  of  John 
with  which  Apollos  became  connected  may  be  explained  easily 
enough ;  but  even  the  phenomena  of  John's  personal  ministry 
tend  to  dislocate  traditional  views  of  his  movement.  As  the 
morning  star  heralds  the  dawn,  so  the  Baptist  led  the  way  for 
Jesus,  and  historically  we  see  that  the  work  of  John  was  sub- 
ordinate to  that  of  his  great  Successor.  At  the  same  time  the 
facts  recorded  seem  to  show  that,  while  John  was  a  forerunner, 
he  yet  conceived  of  his  own  work  on  independent  lines.  In 
spite  of  this  difficulty,  it  would  be  an  egregious  error  to  re- 
nounce the  fragmentary  traditions  of  the  Gospels  as  unhistorical; 
*Luke  xi.  i.  *  Acts  xix.  2-3. 


0 


The  Sun  of  Righteousness  77 

rather  might  we  deem  their  very  incoherence  to  be  due  to  the 
evangehsts'  fidehty  to  the  facts  of  history  and  the  spiritual 
order.  It  is  clear  that  John  announced  Jesus  as  God's  servant, 
and  threw  his  aegis  over  the  beginnings  of  His  ministry;  it  is 
equally  plain  that  the  Baptist  did  not  think  of  himself  as  super- 
seded by  Jesus.  If,  with  this  perception  in  our  minds,  we  proceed 
to  indicate  the  probable  sequence  of  the  important  events,  using 
without  hesitancy  the  suggestions  derived  from  the  idealized 
history  in  St.  John's  Gospel,  we  shall  be  able  to  form  a  con- 
ception of  the  work  done  between  the  feasts  of  the  Tabernacles 
and  of  the  Passover;  and  we  shall  admire  more  and  more  the 
greatness  of  John,  who,  seeing  the  growing  fame  of  Jesus  and 
feeling  that  his  own  star  was  setting,  kept  his  mind  unclouded, 
and  free  from  ignoble  suspicions  and  jealousies. 

5.  When  Jesus  came  forth  from  the  wilderness  temptation, 
He  possessed  at  last  a  clearly  developed  understanding  of  His 
Spiritual  ministry,  and  a  will  of  adamant  after  the  conflict. 
Although  His  watchword  was  verbally  identical  with  John's,  His 
idea  of  the  Kingdom  was  denationalized — human,  spiritual  and 
universal.  Jesus  has  stripped  Himself  of  the  asceticism  inculcated 
by  John's  example ;  He  mingles  with  men  socially,  convivially, 
without  fear  of  defilement.  History  has  truly  gauged  the  value 
of  the  two  ministries :  John  came  baptizing  with  water,  but  Jesus 
baptized  men  with  the  Spirit.  It  is  a  superficial  and  untrust- 
worthy judgement  that  seeks  to  reverse  these  values,  and  at- 
tributes to  John  a  greater  influence  because  of  his  priority  in 
time.  To  the  Baptist  belongs  the  honour  of  reviving  the  role 
of  the  prophet  after  it  had  lapsed  for  four  hundred  years,  and 
his  strenuous  moral  appeals  aroused  the  sleeping  conscience  of  the 
nation.  Jesus,  however,  brought  a  larger,  more  spiritual  ideal 
into  our  world;  He  made  it  possible  to  fulfil  the  Divine  idea  of 
humanity ;  He  caused  men  to  know  God  as  their  Father,  and  im- 
parted a  truly  filial  spirit  to  His  followers.  This  statement  is  far 
from  exhausting  the  significance  of  Christ's  mission ;  but  it  is 
sufficient  to  show  that  the  difference  between  Jesus  and  John  was 
not  merely  one  of  words — rather  of  Spirit,  aim  and  achievement. 
John  baptized  men  unto  repentance,  seeking  to  detach  them  from 
sin  and  turn  their  hearts  to  God ;  Jesus  anointed  men  with  a 
Divine  Spirit,  augmenting  the  energies  of  right  will  in  man's  in- 
ward life. 


78  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

6.  The  Synoptists  give  full  acknowledgement  of  the  incentive 
and  sanction  given  by  John  the  Baptist  to  Jesus;  but  the  fourth 
evangelist,  notwithstanding  the  haze  of  idealism  that  shimmers 
over  his  gospel,  enables  us  to  descry  the  historical  fact  that  Jesus 
exercised  a  potent  influence  upon  the  stern  mind  of  His  fore- 
runner, causing  at  least  a  temporary  deflection  of  John's  thought 
from  its  customary  orbit.  The  intercourse  between  the  two 
prophets,  whether  it  took  place  before  or  after  the  Temptation, 
imparted  a  new  quality  to  the  preaching  of  the  Baptist ;  a  new 
gentleness  stole  into  John's  character.  As  he  contemplated  Jesus, 
the  oracles  concerning  Jehovah's  Suffering  Servant  rose  before 
his  remembrance,  and  in  a  moment  of  triumphant  insight  he  was 
caught  out  of  himself  and  inspired  to  declare,  "  Behold  the  Lamb 
of  God !  "  Subsequent  theological  reflection  charged  this  ec- 
static exclamation  with  meanings  that  made  it  seem  impossible 
that  John  should  have  given  it  utterance.  It  should  be  remem- 
bered, however,  that  while  we  interpret  the  figure  of  the  Lamb 
through  the  Cross,  John  himself  may  have  applied  it  to  Jesus 
because  of  His  gentle,  innocent,  patient,  enduring  Spirit,  which 
became  manifest  from  the  first.  Since  the  disciples  of  Jesus 
Himself  failed  so  utterly  to  realize  the  function  of  sacrifice  in  the 
mission  of  their  Lord  until  the  Crucifixion  had  been  accom- 
plished, it  does  seem  incredible  that  John  the  Baptist  should 
have  outrun  them  all  in  his  forecast  of  Christ's  self-sacrificial 
ministry.  But  we  know  too  little  of  the  personal  influence  of 
Jesus  upon  John,  and  too  little  of  the  mystery  of  inspiration, 
to  say  that  John  could  not  have  conceived  of  Jesus  as  the  Lamb 
of  God.  There  is  a  Divine  Spirit  which  has  access  to  human 
minds,  which  sometimes  bears  them  forward  in  prophecy,  im- 
parting flashes  of  insight  into  the  very  heart  of  life's  mystery, 
and  which  gives  to  the  spoken  word  a  completeness  of  meaning 
that  the  speaker  himself  could  only  imperfectly  have  appre- 
hended. Thus,  as  every  interpreter  of  Shakspere  knows  full 
well,  are  we  able  to  read  into  a  great  poet's  language  ideas  and 
meanings  that  he  never  foresaw.  The  seer's  vision  may  be 
limited  by  his  age  and  standpoint,  but  the  ray  of  light  seen 
and  pointed  out  by  him  has  no  detachment  from  its  source;  it 
blends  with  all  the  other  rays,  and,  if  followed  back,  it  leads 
the  eye  to  the  very  centre  and  source  of  light.  The  gentleness, 
patience  and  innocence  of  Jesus  distinguished  Him  from  all  other 
men  known  to  John,  and  so  he  designated  Him  as  the  Lamb  of  God. 


The  Sun  of  Righteousness  79 

John  saw  in  Him  a  beam  of  the  Eternal  Beam;  a  ray  of  Divine 
lustre  which  leads  up  to  the  fountain-head  of  all  Spiritual  Light — 
the  self-sacrifice  of  perfect  love.  The  language  he  used  was  not 
new,  though  he  spoke  freshly  of  what  he  perceived ;  it  was  bur- 
dened with  meanings  and  ideas  of  Israel's  past  and,  like  all  the 
words  of  inspiration,  insight  and  genius,  conveyed  infinitely  more 
than  the  speaker  may  first  have  intended.  Hearing  John  thus 
proclaim  Jesus  to  be  the  Lamb  of  God,  two  of  his  disciples  were 
attracted  to  Him,  and  followed  Him  with  the  belief  that  He 
would  be  God's  Messiah.  Having  found  in  John  a  clear  radi- 
ance as  of  the  morning  star,  they  now  saw  in  Jesus  all  the  glory 
of  the  rising  sun.  The  Baptist,  in  all  probability,  gave  a  generous 
consent  to  the  transferred  discipleship  of  Andrew  and  John, 
seeking  thus  to  help  forward  the  aims  of  Jesus.  Andrew  sought 
out  his  brother  Simon,  and  introduced  to  Jesus  the  most  force- 
ful personality  of  the  disciple  circle.  Jesus,  on  His  way  north- 
ward, called  Philip  to  accompany  them,  and  Philip  brought  Na- 
thanael.  But  we  must  not  attribute  to  this  first  acquaintance  the 
whole  significance  that  attaches  to  their  later  discipleship;  they 
had  as  yet  no  thought  of  abandoning  their  avocations,  for  at 
times  they  separated  from  Jesus  to  pursue  their  duties  in  connec- 
tion with  their  homes  and  families ;  yet  probably  the  events  of 
later  years  never  erased  the  first  tender  affections  that  this  con- 
tact with  Jesus  aroused  in  their  hearts. 

7.  In  order  that  we  may  trace  the  subsequent  relationship  and 
mutual  influence  of  these  two  great  prophets  of  Israel,  we  shall 
be  forced  to  refer,  though  never  so  briefly,  to  events  that  must 
be  treated  of  more  fully  in  succeeding  chapters ;  but  such  repeti- 
tion will  be  a  light  tax,  if  it  enables  us  to  see  in  clear  light  the 
two  great  epoch-making  characters,  Jesus  and  John.  The  two 
ministries  are  speedily  diflferentiated  by  the  miracle  said  to  have 
been  performed  at  Cana  of  Galilee.  John  has  won  the  fuller 
appreciation  of  the  modern  mind,  because  he  was  no  thaumatur- 
gist.  One  of  the  earliest  undertakings  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was 
the  systematic  visitation  of  all  the  synagogues  of  Galilee.  He 
may  have  foreseen  that,  sooner  or  later,  these  places  of  instruc- 
tion would  be  shut  against  His  teachings;  but,  by  taking  early 
advantage  of  them,  He  made  His  message  of  the  imminence  of 
God's  Sovereignty  verbally  familiar  to  all  the  religious-minded 
Jews  of  His  time. 


80  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

Although  our  data  of  this  part  of  Qirist's  ministry  are  so 
slender,  we  perceive  He  made  no  servile  imitation  of  the  Bap- 
tist's methods;  He  conceived  and  carried  out  His  own  plan; 
He  imposed  no  stern  regimen  upon  His  followers;  and,  as  a 
consequence  of  their  conviviality  and  ceremonial  laxity,  not 
only  was  the  antipathy  of  the  Pharisees  aroused,  but  an  anxiety 
about  it  was  shown  by  the  ascetic  disciples  of  John.  When  the 
matter  is  brought  to  the  attention  of  Jesus,  He  almost  gaily 
compares  His  relation  to  His  disciples  to  the  gladdening  pres- 
ence of  a  bridegroom  with  "  the  sons  of  the  bridechamber  " ;  He 
also  lays  down  the  principle  of  religious  sincerity  in  life:  fasting 
is  the  ritual  of  mourning,  and  grief  can  be  expressed  only  upon 
occasions  of  sadness.  Already  we  discern,  beneath  His  expan- 
sive mood  of  joy,  the  unswerving  strength  of  a  disciplined  leader, 
and  with  resolution  He  differentiates  His  movement  from  John's 
as  something  strong  and  new,  which  demands  corresponding  ex- 
pressions and  institutions.  The  Baptist's  asceticism  belonged  to 
the  old  dispensation ;  Jesus  inaugurated  a  new  era,  whose  preemi- 
nent characteristic  is  a  fresh  feeling  for  humanity — a  larger  social 
righteousness.  There  is  no  profit  in  patching  an  old  garment 
with  unfulled  cloth:  the  rent  will  only  be  made  worse  by  such 
attempts ;  and  no  one  will  put  new  wine  in  old  wineskins,  since 
these  would  only  burst  and  waste  the  wine.  These  parabolic 
utterances  show  clearly  that,  while  Jesus  restrained  Himself  in 
courtesy  and  affection  toward  John,  yet  He  was  fully  aware  of 
His  own  distinct  and  independent  mission.  Jesus  had  mastered 
His  own  thoughts  and  plans ;  there  was  no  mark  of  immaturity 
in  these  early  sayings;  His  doctrines  were  assured  in  His  own 
mind,  and  He  knew  that  He  had  something  fresh  and  original 
to  contribute  to  the  weal  of  mankind.  It  is  also  plain  that  He  con- 
ceived of  His  own  office  in  a  unique  way ;  He  was  no  servant 
standing  on  the  same  plane  of  consciousness  as  the  prophets  be- 
fore Him,  and  as  John  the  Baptist ;  He  is  the  Anointed  Son ;  He 
is  the  joy-creating  Bridegroom. 

8.  About  the  time  of  the  first  Passover  of  Christ's  ministry 
Jesus  returned  southward  and  took  up  His  position  at  ^non, 
near  to  John's  centre,  and  His  disciples  baptized  many  converts 
after  the  manner  of  John  himself.  Such  proximity  aroused  com- 
parisons and  contrasts  between  the  two  schools  and  their  re- 
spective rites  of  purification.     The  discussion  was  natural,  and 


The  Sun  of  Righteousness  81 

may  have  commenced  without  any  strong  feeling ;  but  there  were 
those  around  who  were  but  too  ready  to  point  their  arguments 
with  jealousy,  and  it  was  said  of  Jesus,  "  all  men  come  to  Him." 
When  the  dispute  was  communicated  to  John,  he  evinced  no 
pique  or  meanness ;  his  answer  consisted  in  the  enunciation  of  the 
principle  that,  in  all  man's  service  for  God,  he  "  can  receive  noth- 
ing except  it  hath  been  given  him  from  Heaven." 

"All  service  ranks  the  same  with  God: 
If  now,  as  formerly  he  trod 
Paradise,  his  presence  fills 
Our  earth,  each  only  as  God  wills 
Can  work :  God's  puppets,  best  and  worst, 
Are  we;  there  is  no  last  nor  first."  ^ 

It  may  be  that  someone  had  told  the  Baptist  of  the  claim  of 
Jesus  to  be  the  Bridegroom,  and  in  answer  he  recalls  his  own 
testimony  to  the  greatness  of  Jesus;  he  is  among  those  who  re- 
joice at  the  sound  of  His  voice,  and  exclaims,  "  He  must  increase, 
but  I  must  decrease."  ^  John  kept  his  mind  unclouded  by  jeal- 
ousy; he  had  neither  begun  nor  continued  his  ministry  at  the 
prompting  of  personal  ambition ;  he  was  willing  to  be  "  a  voice  " — 
no  mere  echo,  but  the  stern  voice  of  Israel's  conscience.  John 
bore  witness  of  the  dovelike  spirit  which  he  perceived  resting  on 
Jesus;  he  pointed  to  Him  as  God's  Chosen  Lamb,  and  magnani- 
mously acknowledged  that  He  was  greater  than  himself.  The 
morning  star  envies  not  the  rising  sun,  but  is  content  to  fade 
away  in  the  radiance  of  a  gracious  dawn.  Jesus  said  of  him 
after  he  had  gone,  "  He  was  the  lamp  that  burneth  and  shineth, 
and  ye  were  willing  to  rejoice  for  a  season  in  his  light."  ^  When 
it  came  to  the  knowledge  of  Jesus  that  the  malignant  Pharisees 
were  striving  to  promote  jealousy  between  John's  disciples  and 
His  own,  He  at  once  left  ^non  to  go  back  to  Galilee. 

9.  It  was  probably  while  Jesus  was  travelling  northward,  or 
very  soon  after,  that  Herod  swiftly  cut  short  the  mission  of  the 
Baptist.  Since  Strauss  preferred  the  story  as  it  is  related  by 
Josephus,*  we  may  quote  it  at  first  hand  from  that  historian : 
"  Now  when  many  others  came  in  crowds  about  him  because  they 
were  greatly  pleased  by  hearing  his  words,  Herod,  who  feared 
lest  the  great  influence  John  had  over  the  people  might  put  it  into 

*  Browning,  Pippa  Passes.  ^  John  v.  35. 

2  John  iii.  20-30;  iv.  1-3.  *Ant.,  xviii.,  52. 


82  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

his  power  and  inclination  to  raise  rebellion  (for  they  seemed  to 
do  anything  he  might  advise),  thought  it  best  by  putting  him  to 
death  to  prevent  any  mischief  he  might  cause  and  not  bring 
himself  into  difficulties  by  sparing  a  man  who  might  make  him 
repent  of  it  when  it  should  be  too  late.  Accordingly,  he  was  sent  a 
prisoner,  out  of  Herod's  suspicious  temper,  to  Machaerus,  and 
there  put  to  death."  The  Gospels  say  nothing  of  the  political 
caution,  but  relate  the  story  of  a  personal  grudge.  Herod  Antipas 
was  a  licentious  king:  he  lured  his  niece,  Herodias,  the  wife  of  his 
own  half-brother  Philip  to  his  own  court.  John  is  said  to  have 
reproved  Herod  "  for  all  the  evil  things  he  had  done,"  and  to 
have  boldly  forbidden  Herod's  incestuous  marriage,  saying :  "  It 
is  not  lawful  for  thee  to  have  thy  brother's  wife."  The  imprison- 
ment seems  not  to  have  been  so  absolute  but  that  John's  dis- 
ciples could  visit  him.  Shut  up  in  Machaerus,  it  was  inevitable 
that  the  Baptist's  thoughts  should  revert  to  Jesus,  and  at  every 
interview  with  his  disciples  John  would  ask  concerning  the  work 
of  this  younger  contemporary.  In  the  gloom  of  Machaerus,  the 
gentler  ideas  of  the  dove  and  the  Lamb  passed  away,  and  gave 
place  to  austere  thoughts  of  the  day  of  Jehovah's  judgement. 
Thus  overshadowed  by  these  sombre  conceptions,  John  listened 
with  repugnance  to  the  tales  of  the  convivial  habits  of  Jesus,  and 
may  have  asked  himself  of  what  use  would  be  the  miraculous 
gifts  shown  by  Him,  if  He  became  the  boon  companion  of  dis- 
reputable publicans  and  sinners.  It  seemed  to  the  prisoner  that 
Jesus  was  dallying  with  His  Divine  Mission ;  or  perhaps  He  was 
only  a  subordinate  agent  in  the  preparation ;  and  in  his  doubt  he 
sent  his  disciples  to  ask  his  Nazarene  Kinsman,  "  Art  Thou  the 
Coming  One,  or  ought  we  to  expect  another  ?  " 

10.  John  the  Baptist's  question  demands  a  glance  at  the 
tangle  of  Messianic  hopes  and  preconceptions  which  belonged  to 
that  age.  Sometimes  the  characteristic  expectation  that  influenced 
so  many  Jewish  writers  is  spoken  of  as  though  it  were  a  single, 
simple  phenomenon  belonging  to  all  Jews  and  conceived  of  by  all 
alike ;  whereas  the  ideal  assumed  protean  guises,  and  was  moulded 
afresh  by  successive  preachers.  How  it  originated,  how  it  sus- 
tained a  patriotic  optimism,  and  was  strained  of  its  lower  elements 
and  charged  with  the  prophetic  feeling  of  righteousness,  can  be 
perceived  only  by  those  who  have  studied  the  Old  Testament  in 
the  light  of  its  historical  development.     John  was  deeply  influ- 


The  Sun  of  Righteousness  83 

enced  by  the  teachings  of  older  prophets,  and  the  predominant 
characteristics  of  his  preaching  were  fiery  denunciations  of  sin 
and  anticipations  of  judgement,  although  the  hope  of  a  baptism 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  was  woven  like  a  thread  of  gold  in  this  dark 
background.  Even  a  prophet's  teaching  may  be  marked  by  incon- 
sistencies ;  in  John's  case  we  perceive  a  struggle  to  hold  together 
incompatible  ideas.  Some  critics  fall  into  the  facile  error  of 
making  a  prima-facie  rejection  of  all  evangelical  elements  in 
John's  message  to  his  age.  Glancing  backward,  we  perceive  that 
some  of  the  Baptist's  predecessors  had  foretold  the  establishment 
of  the  Kingdom  as  though  its  only  King  were  the  invisible  God ; 
while  others  had  spoken  of  agents  predestined  to  bring  in  the 
divine  reign  of  a  "  prophet  like  unto  Moses,"  of  "  that  prophet," 
of  Elias  or  of  Jeremiah;  and  some  there  were  who  anticipated 
the  reign  of  a  visible  king.  In  St.  John's  day,  there  sometimes 
mingled  with  popular  Messianism  thoughts  of  a  vague  escha- 
tology  that  sprang  out  of  prophetic  intuitions  of  the  world's 
moral  state  and  of  Divine  Judgement.  Such  thoughts  as  these 
were  a  part  of  the  spiritual  inheritance  of  John,  and  contributed 
the  formulae  in  which  he  could  express  his  own  flashing  ethical 
insights.  By  a  vision  at  the  Jordan-side  he  became  convinced 
that  Jesus  was  divinely  designated  to  be  the  Messenger  of  the 
Covenant — "  the  Great  Refiner,"  ^  John  styled  Him  "  the  Coming 
One  "  (o  spxojusvoi)/'  and  conceived  Him  to  be  the  Preparer  of 
God's  reign,  whose  chief  function  would  be  to  separate  the 
wheat  from  the  chaff,  and  to  inflict  judgement  upon  the  impeni- 
tent. John  neither  offered  new  ideas  for  the  constitution  of  the 
Kingdom  nor  formed  any  programme  beyond  the  elementary  con- 
ception that  the  Lord's  Day  of  Judgement  would  be  followed  by 
a  final  restitution  (aTTOHaTaffTaffi?).^  The  gloom  of  Machaerus 
was  sufficient  to  efface  John's  gentler  mood,  which  intercourse 
with  Jesus  had  induced,  and  to  make  him  revert  to  the  sterner 
ideal  of  prophecy.  The  bold  spirit  of  John  was  chafed  by  cap- 
tivity, and  was  as  a  mountain-eagle  beating  its  wings  against  the 
prison-bars.  Yet  the  most  exquisite  anguish  he  felt  at  this  time 
seems  to  have  been  caused  by  the  silence  and  non-intervention  of 
Jesus.  There  came  no  Message!  There  was  no  attempt  to  de- 
liver! Nay,  worse  still,  John's  disciples  brought  reports  that 
Jesus  had  become  the  boon  companion  of  immoral  men  and 

*Mal.  iii.  i.  ''Matt.  xi.  3;  Luke  vii.  19. 

•Acts  i.  6. 


84  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

women!  John's  sorrow,  however,  was  no  narrow,  self-centred 
thing,  but  arose  from  the  seeming  contradiction  by  Jesus  of  the 
ideal  of  Him  which  the  prisoner  had  cherished  in  harmony  with 
ancient  prophecy. 

II.  "Art  Thou  the  Coming  One,  or  ought  we  to  expect  an- 
other?" John's  question  was  asked  by  his  disciples  before  all 
the  people.  Some  of  those  who  heard  it  would  be  ready  to  repeat 
it  as  discrediting  Jesus'  ministry,  and  even  to  the  friends  of  Jesus 
it  may  have  brought  a  passing  doubt.  The  Master  calmly  con- 
tinued His  discourse ;  perhaps  He  kept  the  messengers  with  Him 
all  that  day.  At  last  He  answered,  "  Go  your  way  and  tell  John 
the  things  which  ye  do  hear  and  see:  the  Wind  receive  their 
sight,  the  lame  walk,  the  lepers  are  cleansed,  the  deaf  hear,  and 
the  dead  are  raised  up,  and  the  poor  have  good  tidings  preached 
to  them.  And  blessed  is  he  who  shall  find  no  occasion  of  stum- 
bling in  Me."  ^  It  need  not  vex  us  that  we  are  uncertain  whether 
Jesus  spoke  the  language  of  metaphor,  or  literally  recounted  the 
physical  miracles  of  His  ministry ;  with  Him,  at  least,  the  spiritual 
was  ever  supreme,  and  extraordinary  occurrences  were  of  little 
worth,  if  they  failed  to  meet  and  to  promote  the  mind  of  faith. 
These  gentle  ministries  had  already  been  narrated  to  John,  and 
had  left  him  impatient;  yet  they  constitute  Christ's  only  answer 
to  men's  prejudices  and  doubts.  Had  John  known  it,  he  was  but 
repeating  the  old  temptation  that  Jesus  should  mould  His  career 
to  the  popular,  political  expectations  of  a  materialistic  age.  The 
answer  of  Jesus  hints  the  pain  He  felt  at  being  misunderstood; 
but  this  was  a  part  of  the  price  of  spiritual  superiority.  He 
transcended  His  contemporaries — even  John — and  stood  for  hu- 
manity, the  Peer  of  all  the  ages.  He  had  to  tread  the  wine- 
press alone. 

"  For  none  so  lone  on  earth  as  he 
Whose  way  of  thought  is  high  and  free. 
Beyond  the  mist,  beyond  the  cloud, 
Beyond  the  clamour  of  the  crowd, 
Moving,  where  Jesus  trod, 
In  the  lone  walk  with  God."  ^ 

12.     It  would  be  pleasing  for  us  to  know  that  the  answer  of 
Jesus  gave  light  to  the  sad  prophet  in  his  dreary  confinement ;  but 
the  Gospels  only  relate  that  the  tragedy  of  violent  death  soon 
*Matt.  xi.  4-6.  ^Dj-,  Walter  Smith,  The  Bishop's  Walk,  pt.  iii. 


The  Sun  of  Righteousness  85 

ended  the  career  of  John.  St.  Mark  states  briefly  that,  on  Herod's 
birthday,  Salome  by  her  brilliant  dance  secured  the  rash  promise 
of  the  King,  which  was  fulfilled  by  the  execution  of  John  the 
Baptist.'^  The  mourning  disciples  "  came  and  took  up  the  corpse, 
and  laid  it  in  a  tomb,"  then  went  and  told  Jesus.  From  this  we 
infer  that,  if  no  reconciliation  of  John  with  the  course  pursued  by 
Jesus  had  taken  place,  still  there  was  no  antagonism  aroused. 
When  the  question  had  been  answered,  one  of  Jesus'  own  disciples 
may  have  called  John  a  reed,  an  undecided  man ;  but  the  Master 
defended  him:  the  Baptist  was  no  reed  shaken  by  the  wind,  no 
smooth-tongued,  well-dressed  courtier,  but  one  of  the  greatest 
of  the  prophets;  although  he  was  less  than  the  least  of  those  who 
are  born  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  The  defect  in  John's  char- 
acter was  its  violence :  since  his  clarion  call  to  prepare  for  the 
Kingdom,  many  had  thought  to  bring  in  that  Divine  Reign  by 
strategy  and  force.  As  Jesus  described  the  Baptist,  he  was  the 
Elijah  of  his  time;  and  to  him,  as  to  the  mighty  Tishbite,  the 
lesson  had  to  be  taught  that  Jehovah  was  not  in  the  tempest, 
earthquake  or  fire,  but  in  the  still  small  voice  of  love.  Since, 
therefore,  a  spirit  of  childlike  grace  has  in  it  a  diviner  element 
than  is  revealed  by  the  vehemence  of  passion,  the  greatest  mem- 
ber of  the  old  prophetic  order  was  characterized  by  Jesus  as  in- 
ferior by  spiritual  birthright  to  the  child  of  the  New  Kingdom. 
In  God  Himself,  there  is  a  holy  resentment  against  sin ;  but  man 
is  too  imperfect  to  show  any  adequate  imitation  of  this  Divine 
wrath.  Jesus  could  be  austere  in  the  presence  of  pretence  of  any 
kind,  but  He  was  strangely  pitiful  of  human  failings,  and  chose 
the  way  of  gentleness  and  self-sacrificing  love  to  establish  His 
Kingdom. 

^  Mark  vi.  17-30. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  FIRST  MONTHS  OF  JESUS'  MINISTRY 

I.  The  attempt  to  understand  the  mutual  relations  of  John 
and  Jesus  necessarily  resulted  in  an  anticipation  of,  and  cursory 
allusion  to,  events  whose  importance  demands  further  attention. 
It  will  help  toward  an  understanding  of  the  whole  work  of  Jesus, 
if  we  first  make  a  synopsis  of  the  inaugural  months,  and  subse- 
quently consider  special  aspects  of  His  message,  works,  and  re- 
lationship to  His  contemporaries.  A  breath  of  Divine  inspiration 
was  at  that  time  passing  over  men's  minds;  the  gaunt,  rugged, 
stern  man  of  the  desert,  with  his  austerities  and  rebukes,  was  a 
portent  of  change.  His  message  sounded  a  mysterious  crisis; 
the  womb  of  time  was  felt  to  be  big  with  Divine  Judgement,  and 
the  Jewish  people  were  moved  with  hopes  and  fears,  believing 
that  the  day  of  Jehovah  was  imminent.  Unlike  some  of  the 
Oriental  races  who  cherish  dreams  of  a  golden  age  which  has 
vanished  in  a  dim  antiquity,  Israel  bore  the  morning  star  of 
Hope  on  her  forehead,  looking  ever  to  the  future  for  the  nobler 
dispensation  of  God's  providence.  While  they  clothed  Moses  in 
legendary  splendours  so  that,  as  Heine  remarks,  the  mountain 
of  Sinai  is  but  a  pedestal  for  the  man  who  stood  above  the  clouds 
and  talked  face  to  face  with  God,  yet  they  dared  to  expect  the 
coming  of  One  greater  than  Moses  himself.  The  traditions  of 
David's  reign  were  glorious  in  the  minds  of  all  patriotic  Jews, 
and  yet  they  believed  a  Son  of  David  should  achieve  even  greater 
renown  for  their  race.  Prophecy,  poetry  and  patriotism  were 
fused  by  the  mighty  genius  who  personified  the  nation  as  the 
Servant  of  Jehovah,  and  predicted  that  when  the  Servant  was 
overcome,  exiled,  oppressed,  he  should  renew  his  strength  like 
the  eagle,  and  transmute  the  failure  of  the  race  into  spiritual 
triumphs.  This  noble  hope  awoke  many  echoes  in  the  genera- 
tions that  followed,  and  thrilled  the  Jewish  race  with  vivid  ex- 
pectancies of  Divine  visitations.  Such  tales  of  past  greatness 
and  predictions  of  a  glorious  restoration,  with  historic  memories 
of  heroic  struggles  for  freedom,  nestled  in  the  heart  of  Israel 

86 


The  First  Months  of  Jesus'  Ministry  87 

as  sleeping  instincts  waiting  to  spring  into  activity  whenever 
some  great  man  appeared  in  the  nation. 

2.  History  shows  that  nations,  like  individuals,  pass  through 
periods  of  sleep;  but  during  such  times  they  often  gather  new 
energies  for  a  further  advance.  When  God's  tocsin  rings  out, 
the  dead  levels  are  broken  by  the  inrush  of  new  forces ;  the 
thoughts  of  men  appear  to  boil  and  ferment  as  though  penetrated 
by  a  powerful  leaven ;  the  apathy  that  has  weighed  upon  the 
heart  like  the  frost  of  winter  is  thawed,  and  hot  emotions  are 
sent  out  like  streams  of  lava.  Such  transitions  from  quiescence 
to  storm,  from  stagnation  to  intensest  activity,  are  frequently 
characterized  by  revolutionary  terrors.  When  these  birth-times 
arrive,  God  sends  forth  epoch-making  men — teachers,  founders  of 
religion,  anointed  leaders — like  Elijah,  Confucius,  Mohammed. 
Men  like  these  are  high-priests  of  the  soul ;  they  stand  on  the 
boundaries  of  the  invisible  as  interpreters  and  Messiahs ;  often 
they  become  iconoclasts,  who  sweep  away  the  false  gods  and 
illusions  of  their  people ;  and  yet  at  crucial  moments  they  dis- 
appoint even  those  who  hail  them  as  leaders.  When  John  came 
in  Judaea,  he  stirred  the  conscience  and  heart  of  the  Jewish  race, 
and  there  were  many  who  were  willing  to  accept  him  as  the 
Messiah ;  but  with  marvellous  humility  John  pointed  to  Jesus  as 
a  greater  Leader  than  himself,  as  one  divinely  predestined  to 
bring  in  the  Reign  of  God.  Jesus  appears  to  have  felt  the 
temptation  offered  by  the  political  expectations  of  His  race,  but 
refused  to  take  part  in  the  fostering  of  revolution. 

3.  Externally  there  was  but  little  in  the  lowly  appearance 
of  Jesus  to  account  for  the  immeasurable  influence  of  His  Life; 
perhaps  few  great  men  have  presented  less  temptation  to  the 
popular  imagination  for  hero-worship  than  this  Carpenter  of 
Nazareth.  We  have  seen  how  rapture  and  agony  blended  in 
His  experience  of  the  Divine  call ;  how,  driven  by  the  Spirit,  He 
wrestled  with  His  new  thoughts  and  high  projects :  but  in  the 
discipline  of  the  years  that  had  gone,  will  and  character  had 
been  tempered  so  that  He  emerged  from  this  struggle  with  His 
vision  of  the  Father  unblurred  and  an  aim  that  never  wavered. 
The  transcendence  of  such  a  character  as  this  has  been  the 
riddle  of  all  successive  time.  Shall  we  call  Him  God  or  man? 
In  seeking  to  understand  the  Gospels,  it  is  well  that  our  first 


88  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

aim  should  be  to  learn  all  that  they  record  of  Jesus  without 
theorizing  about  His  Person;  although,  as  we  proceed,  we  are 
forced  by  the  teaching  and  action  of  Jesus  to  consider  Who  and 
What  He  was.  We  shall  be  permitted  to  assume,  from  our 
general  acquaintance  with  the  Gospels,  that  Jesus  was  a  man 
anointed  and  filled  by  a  Divine  Spirit,  without,  however,  offering 
a  definition  of  this  conception.  Two  opposite  temptations  meet 
the  students  of  this  problem :  they  are  prone  to  think  of  God  as 
the  Subject  of  the  phenomena  of  Christ's  earthly  life,  or  they 
fall  into  a  loose  habit  of  treating  the  Divine  Sonship  of  Jesus 
as  a  rhetorical  or  poetical  metaphor.  The  true  method  of  treat- 
ment is  that  of  ethical  insight  rather  than  of  metaphysical  anal- 
ysis. As  a  great  agent  in  the  world's  history,  Jesus  said  certain 
things  and  performed  certain  acts ;  and  these  have  a  great  ethical 
value.  In  treating  the  inaugural  period  of  His  ministry,  it  will 
suffice  to  remember  that  He  was  ethically  one  with  the  Will  of 
God — He  lived  consciously  in  reciprocity  of  thought  and  obedi- 
ence with  the  Heavenly  Father — and  that  He  gave  Himself  up 
to  follow  the  leading  of  the  Divine  Spirit.  His  manhood  was 
like  ours  in  its  dependence  and  submission;  unlike  ours  only  in 
its  perfect  sinlessness  and  victorious  triumph  over  all  forms  of 
selfishness.  He  ministered  to  men  as  the  social  and  loving  Man, 
and  without  ostentation  or  noise  inaugurated  the  spiritual  reality 
of  the  Reign  of  God.  Dr.  Knowling,  in  commenting  on  the 
Acts,  states  the  unlikeness  of  Jesus  to  His  contemporaries  in  a 
striking  manner :  "  As  we  consider  the  characteristics  of  such  men 
as  Theudas  and  Judas,  it  is  difficult  to  suppose  that  the  age  which 
produced  them  could  have  produced  the  Messiah  of  the  Gospels. 
He  is,  in  truth,  the  Anti-christ  of  Judaism.  Instead  of  giving 
Himself  out  to  be  somebody,  Jesus  is  meek  and  lowly  of  heart; 
instead  of  stirring  revolt  in  Galilee,  a  burning  furnace  of  sedition. 
His  blessing  is  upon  the  peace-makers;  instead  of  seeking  a 
kingly  crown,  like  Judas  the  Gaulonite,  He  withdraws  from  those 
who  would  take  Him  by  force,  and  make  Him  a  king;  instead 
of  preaching  revolt  and  license  in  the  name  of  liberty  for  merely 
selfish  ends,  He  bade  men  render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are 
Caesar's ;  instead  of  defiantly  bidding  His  followers  to  be  in  sub- 
jection to  no  man  and  inaugurating  a  policy  of  bloodshed  and 
murder.  He  bade  them  remember  that  while  One  was  their 
Master  and  Teacher,  they  all  were  brethren."  ^ 

^  Expos.  Gk.  Test.,  Acts  v.  57,  in  loco. 


The  First  Months  of  Jesus'  Ministry  89 

4.  It  13  hardly  likely  that  any  critic  will  dispute  the  testimony 
of  the  New  Testament,  that  "  the  sum  and  substance  of  the 
apostles'  message  to  their  fellow-countrymen  "  was  that  "  Jesus 
is  the  Christ " ;  but  it  may  be  questioned  whether  this  title  was 
conferred  upon  Him  by  over-zealous  adherents,  or  whether  He 
adopted  it  Himself.  One  of  the  intellectual  temptations  follow- 
ing upon  the  emancipation  of  the  mind  from  the  fetters  of  tra- 
ditional orthodoxy  is  to  suppose  that  the  Messianic  role  was 
ascribed  to  Jesus  by  others,  and  was  not  claimed  by  Himself — 
hence  to  consider  His  Christhood  as  external  and  non-essential. 
After  a  reexamination  of  the  Gospels  I  am  convinced,  however, 
that  although  Jesus  refrained  from  making  any  pronounced  claim 
to  this  title  during  the  first  months  of  His  ministry,  yet  He 
acquiesced  in  its  application  to  Him,  and  implied  His  right  to  it 
from  the  beginning.  But  this  admission  necessitates  a  reiteration 
of  Knowling's  statement,  that  Jesus  was  more  like  the  Anti-christ 
of  Judaism :  the  Christ  He  claimed  to  be  differed  radically  from 
the  Christ  of  popular  imagination.  He  found  the  Christ-ideal 
steeped  in  the  politics  of  a  narrow  patriotism,  and  He  lifted  it 
on  to  the  plane  of  ethical  and  spiritual  life,  infusing  into  it  the 
formative  power  of  His  own  filial  consciousness  of  man's  God- 
ward  relation.  That  Jesus  should  have  acquiesced  at  all  in 
a  title  so  misleading  must  have  been  the  consequence  of  His 
insight  into  the  real  needs  and  spiritual  aspirations  that  were  dis- 
closed even  by  the  most  illusive  hopes  of  the  popular  Messianism. 
He  looked  upon  it  as  the  shell  of  a  spiritual  truth.  Just  as  He 
told  His  disciples  that  John  the  Baptist  was  Elias  (the  only  Elias 
for  that  age),  so  He  knew  that  He  Himself  was  the  true  Messiah 
— the  only  real  Messiah  God  would  send  in  that  age.  He  was  the 
desire  of  all  nations.  For  Him  and  for  us  the  truth  of  this 
Messianic  ideal  lay  in  the  perfect  consciousness  of  His  Divine 
Sonship.  Not  being  able  to  apprehend  Jesus'  higher  point  of 
view,  but  cherishing,  long  after  they  became  acquainted  with 
Him,  the  dream  of  a  political  Christ,  the  disciples  were  repeatedly 
disappointed  in  their  Master,  and  at  His  Crucifixion  they  vvere 
subjected  to  the  most  cruel  disillusionment.  The  belief  in  His 
resurrection,  however,  revived  the  idea  of  His  Messiahship,  but 
in  a  form  more  akin  to  His  own  conception,  though  still  coloured 
by  Jewish  eschatology ;  they  saw  that  His  Messiahship  consisted 
in  His  princely  and  soteriological  relations  with  all  mankind. 
When  Christians  now  read  the  prophecies  of  the  Messiah's  com- 


90  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

ing,  and  of  the  New  Testament  faith  that  Jesus  fulfilled  them,  they 
instinctively  drop  all  the  temporalities  and  accidents  of  national- 
ism, and  regard  these  oracles  as  expressions — noble  with  ignoble 
blended — of  the  soul's  deep,  universal,  vague  yearnings  for  Divine 
deliverance  and  succour.  That  is,  we  interpret  the  Mind  of 
Christ  through  His  own  "  Beatitudes,"  rather  than  through  the 
distorting  media  of  passionate  Jewish  patriotism  and  local  preju- 
dices. 

5.  The  Method  of  Jesus,  in  quietly  deposing  the  reigning 
ideals  and  setting  up  in  a  position  of  universal  supremacy  the 
conception  that  He  realized  in  His  own  life,  is  one  of  the  amazing 
disclosures  made  in  the  Gospels.  He  proceeded,  from  the  time 
of  His  return  from  the  wilderness  temptation,  along  the  simple, 
unpretentious  lines  of  human  goodness.  Such  an  inauguration 
of  the  Kingdom,  being  altogether  without  violence  and  apocalyptic 
splendours,  offended  even  John  the  Baptist,  and  left  him  unsatis- 
fied. Nevertheless,  those  opening  months  of  Christ's  ministry 
marked  a  new  beginning  in  human  history.  Tacitus  tells  of  a 
legend  that  beyond  the  land  of  the  Suiones  the  sun  gives  forth 
audible  sounds  in  its  rising,  "  sweeter  than  lutes  and  songs  of 
birds  " ;  and  in  sober  fact,  the  work  of  Jesus  constituted  a  day- 
spring  from  on  high  which  filled  the  spiritual  atmosphere  of  men's 
lives  with  gracious  and  stirring  harmonies.  Having  once  de- 
liberately discarded  all  conventional  dreams  of  what  the  Messiah 
should  do,  Jesus  never  wavered  in  His  course,  never  retraced  the 
steps  of  His  purpose,  never  swerved  from  His  own  ideal,  nor 
ever  permitted  popular  clamour  to  divert  His  simple  ministry 
of  human  goodness.  He  showed  no  natural  impatience  to  secure 
the  people's  attachment;  He  calmly  went  about  doing  good;  He 
renounced  all  worldly  ambitions ;  and  in  spite  of  the  Baptist's 
solicitation,  firmly  detached  Himself  from  all  political  Messianism, 
being  content  to  exemplify  the  true  character  of  the  Divine  Son. 
That  ministry  was  not  fashioned  by  outward  circumstances ;  it 
was  performed  under  the  compulsion  of  the  Spirit.  The  Fourth 
Gospel  reflects,  quite  truly,  we  believe,  these  characteristics  of 
self-possession  andautonomy.  Jesus  resisted  all  pressure  toward 
premature  action,  and  waited  for  '*  the  hour  "  of  Divine  appoint- 
ment ;  then  at  its  signal,  recognized  at  once  in  His  sensitive  spirit. 
He  moved  forward  with  stately  yet  simple  dignity  toward  His 
goal.     For  lucidity  of  treatment  we  draw  the  inaugural  months 


The  First  Months  of  Jesus'  Ministry  91 

of  the  Messiah's  ministry  apart  from  the  later  period;  but  no 
one  should  infer  that  there  is  any  real  "  break  "  in  the  continuous 
development  of  His  mission ;  from  the  beginning  Jesus  was  dom- 
inated by  a  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  and  of  Divine  Sonship,  which 
the  tragedy  of  the  Cross  only  threw  into  high  relief.  Thus, 
as  we  glance  over  the  whole  finished  work,  we  become  sympa- 
thetic with  the  special  view  of  the  fourth  evangelist,  who  "  re- 
gards the  whole  work  of  Christ  as  one,  as  the  complete  fulfilment 
of  the  Divine  Counsel." 

6.  How,  then,  did  Jesus  appear  to  those  first  followers  in  that 
new,  gracious  dawn?  They  looked  at  Him  through  the  mist  of 
Messianism,  and  yet  they  saw  that  His  face  had  caught  a  glorious 
radiance,  and  their  own  hearts  leapt  toward  Him.  In  the  Fourth 
Gospel  we  find  the  story  of  the  wedding  at  Cana  of  Galilee,  which, 
whether  treated  as  history  or  legend,  presents  a  symbolic  frontis- 
piece for  the  record  of  Christ's  ministry.  Many  questions  relat- 
ing to  the  historical  criticism  of  the  Gospels  remain  as  yet  un- 
settled ;  and  it  remains  open  to  the  reader  either  to  make  the 
naive  assumption  that  all  the  incidents  related  are  substantially 
veracious,  or  to  weigh  all  available  evidences  and  suspend  judge- 
ment wherever  the  data  are  inadequate.  I  confess  that  I  cannot 
bring  my  mind  to  acquiesce  lightly  in  the  theory  that  the  fourth 
evangelist  indulged  in  the  free  invention  of  incidents  for  the 
illustration  of  his  theme,  "  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God."  In  such  narratives  as  those  of  the  miracle  at  Cana  and 
of  the  raising  of  Lazarus,  we  take  it  for  granted  that  he  had 
some  basis  of  fact  to  work  upon.  In  the  first-named  story,  there 
are  details  that  are  hard  to  understand:  especially  is  it  difficult 
to  apprehend  the  exact  ground  of  Mary's  expectation  that  her 
Son  would  meet  the  sudden  demand  for  wine ;  and  this  difficulty 
is  but  accentuated  by  the  attitude  and  reply  of  Jesus.  Had  Mary 
only  sought  from  Jesus  the  exercise  of  His  tact  and  ability  to 
extricate  the  host  from  embarrassment,  it  would  have  seemed 
natural ;  but  the  evangelist  makes  it  appear  that  she  wanted 
Him  to  perform  a  miracle.  Taking  the  story  as  it  stands,  that 
it  may  make  its  own  impression  upon  our  minds,  we  may  note 
that  the  unexpected  arrival  of  Jesus  with  five  friends  perhaps 
helped  to  produce  the  failure  of  the  bridegroom's  wine  supply. 
Whatever  the  nature  of  Mary's  expectation  concerning  her  Son, 
she   manifests   a   trust  in   His   sympathy  and  power.     In   His 


92  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

answer,  He  disclaims  any  further  right  of  fleshly  relationship 
to  control  His  conduct,  and  indicates  that  the  initiative  must 
henceforth  come  from  a  Divine  source.  By  His  presence  at  the 
wedding  and  His  miracle,  when  so  recently  He  had  refused  to 
satisfy  His  own  hunger,  Jesus  appears  to  us  as  socially  winsome 
and  sympathetically  powerful — a  bright  and  joyous  personality. 
"  Without  wine  there  is  no  joy,"  runs  the  Jewish  saying  ^ ;  and 
this  gives  the  key  to  the  story — Jesus  is  the  Joy-giver  at  life's 
feast ;  water  changes  to  wine  at  His  word ;  nature  is  transfigured 
by  His  grace.  The  gladness  of  His  mind  was  not,  however,  the 
spontaneity  of  nature's  harmony  and  fair  proportions ;  it  was  dis- 
tinctively an  ethical  beatitude,  the  resultant  of  temptation  mas- 
tered, of  self -conquest,  of  sorrow  faced  and  transformed.  His 
serenity  is  not  the  beautiful  bloom  of  nature ;  nor  is  it  even  the 
superb  scorn  of  Stoicism ;  it  is  the  fine  achievement  of  moral 
effort :  it  is  at  once  a  Divine  endowment  and  an  ethical  attainment. 
Jesus  was  able  to  replenish  the  world's  wasted  store  of  life's 
wine,  because  already  He  had  trodden  the  wine-press  alone. 
Through  meditation  and  heroic  resolve.  He  plucked  the  grapes 
of  wisdom  and  meditation ;  He  had  won  perfection  through  suffer- 
ing: hence,  although  He  is  the  Joy-bringer,  He  offers  men  no 
cheap  happiness,  as  many  demagogues  have  done;  He  imparts 
His  beatitude  to  such  as  learn  of  Him  to  be  meek  and  lowly 
in  heart — a  lesson  learnt  only  by  bearing  His  yoke.  Jesus  as- 
sumed no  "  airs,"  practised  no  religious  asceticism,  boasted  of  no 
spiritual  ecstasies;  He  came  into  men's  lives  as  simply  and 
grandly  Human. 

7.  The  fourth  evangelist,  who  has  done  more  than  any  other 
to  give  men  an  adequate  conception  of  Christ's  inaugural  ministry, 
places  the  incident  of  the  cleansing  of  the  temple  in  this  period ; 
but  we  think  this  order  is  topical,  and  due  to  the  fact  that  in  it 
the  author  found  something  concerning  the  purification  of  Divine 
worship  that  supplied  a  doctrine  as  necessary  as  that  illustrated 
by  the  miracle  at  Cana.  We  follow  Tatian  in  placing  the  temple- 
cleansing  incident  at  the  last  Passover,  and  seek  no  harmony  by 
the  duplication  of  this  vehement  protest.  Jesus  appears  to  have 
taught  and  healed  in  Capernaum,  and  then  to  have  used  the  first 
months  of  His  ministry  in  visiting  the  synagogues  of  Galilee,  We 
accept  the  suggestion  of  the  late  Dr.  Bruce,  that  "  there  was 
*  Quoted  by  Westcott,  in  loco. 


The  First  Months  of  Jesus'  Ministry  93 

such  a  thing  as  a  systematic  synagogue  ministry,"  ^  although  this 
fact  is  too  inadequately  apprehended  by  most  readers  of  the  Gos- 
pels. "  He  preached  in  their  synagogues  throughout  all  Galilee, 
and  cast  out  devils."  This  was  the  deliberate  policy  of  Jesus, 
planned  by  Him  in  all  probability  in  His  wilderness  meditations ; 
hence  He  would  not  dally,  but,  having  preached  in  Capernaum, 
He  presses  on  to  other  places :  "  Let  us  go  into  the  next  towns, 
that  I  may  preach  there  also ;  for  to  this  end  came  I  forth."  We 
shall  perceive,  as  we  go  on,  far  more  of  plan  in  the  successive 
phases  of  Christ's  mission  than  is  often  suspected  by  casual 
readers ;  the  particular  spheres  and  styles  He  adopted,  the  forms 
and  developments,  are  not  due  solely  to  the  popular  demands ;  nor 
are  they  determined  by  the  exigencies  and  contingencies  that 
arise  apart  from  His  foresight.  Jesus  really  appears  to  have 
planned  His  life's  work  so  that  He  should  touch  every  class, 
and  yet  prevent  all  unwise  diffusion  of  effort,  by  giving  special 
attention  to  the  preparation  of  selected  disciples.  His  design 
of  accomplishing  the  early  visitation  of  most  of  the  synagogues 
was  justified  by  events;  for,  after  a  few  months,  those  congrega- 
tions evinced  such  hostility  to  Him  that  it  would  have  been  almost 
impossible  to  have  gone  through  the  synagogues  in  the  second 
year.  This  being  so,  several  months  of  Messianic  ministry  must 
be  intercalated  between  the  departure  from  Capernaum  and  the 
return.  Instead  of  imagining  that  St.  Mark  intended  to  represent 
Jesus  as  coming  back  to  Capernaum  after  a  few  days,^  let  the 
punctuation  be  slightly  changed  and  read,  "  And  when  He  en- 
tered again  into  Capernaum,  after  some  days  it  was  noised  that 
He  was  at  home."  He  had  gone  away  secretly  ^  and  had  come 
back  so  unobtrusively,  that  not  until  several  days  had  passed  did 
it  become  generally  known  that  He  had  returned.  The  months 
between  these  two  points  of  time  were  filled  with  incessant  labours 
of  preaching  and  healing;  but  fewer  details  and  definite  facts 
are  recorded  of  this  first  phase  of  His  ministry  than  of  any  other. 
John  the  Baptist  was  looked  upon  by  most  as  still  the  centre  of 
the  new  movement,  and  for  the  most  part  the  message  of  Jesus 
seemed  the  reiteration  of  the  warning  that  "  the  Kingdom  "  was 
at  hand.  Gradually,  however,  popular  attention  was  attracted  to 
Jesus,  and  the  differences  between  His  message  and  method  and 
those  of  John  the  Baptist  became  clear  to  all.     His  miracles 

'  With  Open  Face,  chap,  iv.,  p.  80.  2jv[ark  ii.  J. 

3  Mark  i.  38. 


94  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

impressed  men,  and  constrained  them  to  consider  both  the  char- 
acter and  claims  of  the  worker.^ 

8.  Of  Christ's  preaching  generally,  it  may  be  said  that  it 
reflected  His  inmost  Spirit  and  life.  His  sayings  were  simple, 
earnest  and  direct,  and  His  discourses  gleamed  with  pregnant 
aphorisms  and  beautiful  similes.  His  manner  had  none  of  the 
clamorous  stridency  of  the  political  agitator ;  He  was  quietly 
didactic.  The  Baptist's  preaching  was  vehement  and  tumultuous 
as  a  mountain  torrent ;  the  sayings  of  Jesus  were  sparkling,  limpid 
and  spontaneous  as  a  fountain  springing  amid  rocks.  His  dis- 
courses seemed  too  natural  to  be  premeditated,  and  breathed  the 
aroma  of  religious  poetry.  During  the  years  of  His  silence.  He 
had  accumulated  treasures  of  highest  wisdom,  which,  after  being 
dammed  back  so  long,  shot  forth  at  last  in  a  crystal  spring  of 
purest  religious  thought.  He  refreshed  the  hot,  tired  hearts  of 
the  people :  as  they  listened  they  detected  a  note  of  true  distinction 
in  His  speech,  and  said  of  Him  that  He  spake  not  as  the  scribes, 
but  as  one  having  authority.  "  Two  weighty  qualities  "  in  His 
utterances  were  "  popular  intelligibility  "  and  "  impressive  preg- 
nancy." He  used  copious  examples,  parables,  proverbs,  and  sen- 
tentious sayings,  aiming  always  at  expressing  His  thought  with 
the  greatest  clearness  in  the  briefest  compass.^  Whether  He  had 
ever  wrestled  with  intellectual  doubts,  or  whether  He  had  acquired 
His  mastery  of  language  by  earlier  attempts,  is  not  known ;  we 
only  know  that,  from  the  beginning  of  His  Messianic  ministry 
He  moved  in  a  circle  of  Spiritual  Light,  and  the  intuitions  of  His 
sensitive  heart  have  proved  the  trustworthy  revelation  of  God  to 
myriads  of  men  ever  since.  Perhaps  we  are  more  acutely  con- 
scious of  life's  mysteries  and  sorrows  today  than  men  were  in 
Palestine,  but  across  the  abyss  of  incertitude  the  words  of  Jesus 
make  a  pathway  of  Light.  Those  who  abandon  this  way  in- 
evitably lose  themselves  amid  the  dark  labyrinths  of  speculation, 
and  we  find  them  striving  to  re-erect  the  fallen  gods  of  fatality 
and  chance,  and  make  them  pleasing  by  the  shimmer  of  poetic 
thought  and  musical  diction.  We  think  the  Galilean  will  conquer 
all  such  renaissance  of  paganism,  and  His  words  will  continue 
to  reverberate  in  the  inmost  sanctuary  of  man's  soul  with  the 
ring    of    spiritual  truth.     This    joyous,    loving,    social     Messiah 

*  Mark  i.  21-34,  35-45",  "•  1-12. 

*  Wendt,  T.  J.,  The  Teaching  of  Jesus,  p.  148  (Eng.  trans.). 


The  First  Months  of  Jesus'  Ministry  95 

wedded  His  speech  with  works  of  power,  and  by  the  symbolism 
of  His  miracles  sought  to  make  His  ultimate  purpose  plain:  He 
banished  fever  and  paralysis,  and  evoked  in  sensitive  hearts  a 
power  of  healing  faith.  He  brought  the  evangel  of  Divine  for- 
giveness and  deliverance  for  the  thralls  of  unloving  egoism  and 
evil  lusts. 


CHAPTER  III 

JESUS'  MESSAGE  OF  THE   SOVEREIGNTY   OF  GOD 

I.  While  we  distinguish  between  the  inaugural  and  the  later 
mission  of  Jesus,  it  must  be  remembered  that  His  message  was 
identical  throughout,  although  different  circumstances  evoked 
an  ever  fuller  and  richer  unfolding  of  its  spiritual  content.  As 
already  remarked,  the  Synoptists  give  but  the  slightest  hint  of 
Christ's  work  in  Galilee  prior  to  John's  imprisonment;  it  is  the 
second  visit  which  they  make  prominent  by  their  statement  that 
"  after  John  was  given  up,  Jesus  came  into  Galilee,  proclaiming 
the  Gospel  of  the  Sovereignty  of  God."  It  is  not  improbable  that, 
as  we  have  conjectured,  the  removal  of  John  brought  emancipa- 
tion to  Christ's  ministry,  which  was  henceforth  characterized  by 
greater  intensity  and  boldness.  This  second  period  of  work  in 
Galilee  comprised  events  that  transpired  from  the  time  that  Jesus 
left  iEnon  to  the  return  to  the  capital  at  the  unnamed  feast,  and 
in  our  mental  picture  it  must  be  framed  between  the  famous 
cornfield  episode  and  the  informal  trial  of  Jesus  at  Jerusalem. 
We  can  only  enumerate  the  succession  of  some  of  the  most  im- 
pressive events  of  this  period,  such  as  the  preaching  of  Jesus  by 
the  seashore,^  the  choice  of  the  Twelve  instituting  the  new  apos- 
tolate,  the  teachings  on  the  Mount,  the  healing  of  the  centurion's 
servant,  the  raising  of  the  widow's  son  at  Nain,  and  the  inquiry 
of  John  sent  from  the  prison  of  Machaerus  which  elicited  Christ's 
programme  of  His  own  ministry.  When  this  second  period  in 
Galilee  began,  Jesus  still  had  the  entree  of  the  synagogues,  as 
the  clerical  hostility  had  not  yet  become  pronounced.  The  record 
of  His  work  shows  that  it  was  a  continuation  and  an  extension 
of  the  glad  evangelism  with  which  He  began ;  He  preached  to 
the  populace,  gave  special  instruction  to  chosen  followers,  healed 
the  sick  and  cast  out  devils.^  It  is  neither  within  our  scope  nor 
is  it  our  design  to  treat  of  each  incident:  "if  they  should  be 
written  every  one,  I  suppose  that  even  the  world  itself  could  not 

^Mark  iii.  7f.  2  Mark  i.  34;  Matt.  iv.  23. 

96 


Jesus'  Message  of  the  Sovereignty  of  God      97 

contain  the  books  that  should  be  written."  Our  immediate  aim 
is  to  apprehend  the  definite  message  of  Jesus  to  His  age  concern- 
ing the  "  Reign  of  God,"  and,  while  leaving  much  of  its  spiritual 
content  for  treatment  when  we  show  Christ's  special  relationship 
to  His  disciples,  to  point  out  in  this  place  that  this  "  Watchword 
of  the  Kingdom  "  defined  the  aim  of  Jesus  in  the  world,  and 
provided  a  unifying  principle  for  all  His  various  teaching. 

2.  Few,  if  any,  will  now  dispute  that  our  translator's  phrase, 
"  the  Kingdom  of  God,"  sums  up  one  of  the  dominating  concep- 
tions of  the  Mind  of  Jesus.  It  would  be  mere  pedantry  on  our 
part  to  exclude  the  word  "  kingdom,"  which  has  found  a  lodge- 
ment in  all  New  Testament  literature ;  yet  it  is  well  to  remember 
that  the  chief  idea  of  the  Greek  word  is  not  the  constitution  or 
the  territory,  but  rather  the  Reign  of  God.  St.  Matthew  prefers 
the  phrase,  "  the  sovereignty  of  Heaven  " ;  but  the  other  Synop- 
tists  uniformly  elect  as  their  expression — "  the  sovereignty  of 
God."  ^  Various  explanations  have  been  offered  for  St.  Mat- 
thew's preference — e.g.,  that  it  expressed  more  accurately  the 
Aramaic  term  used  by  Jesus,  or  that  reverence  prompted  the  use 
of  an  impersonal  term  instead  of  the  name  God,  or  thirdly,  because 
it  denoted  the  Heavenly  nature  and  goal  of  Christ's  ideal.  But 
this  last  "  reference  to  the  transcendental  character  of  the  object 
so  designated  "  evinces  a  lack  of  familiarity  with  Jewish  phrase- 
ology. Dalman  tells  us  that  the  phrase  "  the  Sovereignty  of 
Heaven  "  is  tantamount  to  "  the  Sovereignty  of  God  "  ;  though  "  it 
does  not  thence  follow  that  all  trace  of  the  thought,  that  in  the 
phrase  the  dwelling-place  of  God  was  being  named  instead  of  Him 
who  was  there  enthroned,  must  have  been  obliterated."  ^  How- 
ever, it  will  aid  us  in  our  search  for  the  spiritual  content  of 
Christ's  dominating  idea  to  remember  that,  save  for  two  inci- 
dental references,^  the  Synoptic  term  for  "  the  Kingdom  "  is  in 
the  Fourth  Gospel  entirely  supplanted  by  a  different  phraseology. 
But  upon  careful  examination  we  find  that  while  St.  John  uses 
a  different  set  of  terms,  yet  by  "  life  "  and  "  eternal  life "  he 
means  essentially  the  same  thing  as  the  Synoptists  when  they 
write  of  the  Sovereignty  of  God.  It  is  not  incredible  that  Jesus 
Himself  may  have   passed   freely   from  one   set  of   phrases  to 

*  paaiTiEia  in  Bibl.  Gk.  is  the  abstract  noun  of  nipiog,  and  not  of  ^aaiXivg, 
'  Dalman.  The  Words  of  Jesus,  p.  92. 
^  John  iii.  55 ;  xviii.  36. 


98  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

another  to  connote  various  aspects  of  one  reality;  and  since  St. 
Mark  identifies  the  entrance  into  life  with  admission  into  the 
reign  of  God,  this  conjecture  becomes  more  plausible.  The  evan- 
gelists' choice  of  alternative  phrases  may  have  been  determined 
as  much  by  their  own  predilections  as  by  the  frequency  of  Christ's 
own  repetition  of  them.  Hence,  "  eternal  life  "  radically  means 
participation  in  the  theocracy;  and  it  is  substantially  the  same 
thing,  whether  it  be  the  entrance  into  the  theocracy  or  into, 
eternal  life  that  is  spoken  of.  A  further  example  of  the  liberty 
of  the  apostles'  choice  of  terms  is  found  in  their  preference  for 
the  word  "  ecclesia  "  in  the  Epistles,  which  also  denotes  a  the- 
ocracy— God's  Sovereignty  realized  in  an  organized  fellowship. 
Such  variations  in  New  Testament  terminology,  when  rightly 
apprehended,  free  the  mind  from  all  slavery  to  words.  By  waiv- 
ing such  terms  as  "  Kingdom  "  and  "  Church,"  and  using  the 
phrase  "  eternal  life,"  St.  John  saves  us  alike  from  the  mechanical 
views  of  ecclesiasticism  and  from  identifying  God's  Sovereignty 
with  contemporary  phases  of  socialism.  While  the  Kingdom  must 
seek  expression  in  organized  communities,  it  is  essentially  spiritual 
— touching  the  inward  and  eternal  life,  which  is  God's  gift  to  man 
in  Christ;  it  is  God's  reign  over  man's  whole  life,  and  the 
Churches  are  of  value  as  they  mediate  this  Divine  Sovereignty. 

3.  One  of  the  most  fruitful  sources  of  perplexity  is  the 
mingling  in  the  Gospels  of  elements  of  prophecy  with  the  formulae 
of  Jewish  apocalypse.  The  latter  have  appeared  to  many  modern 
scholars  as  due  to  the  misunderstanding  by  the  disciples,  of 
their  Master's  teaching,  which  in  their  reports  became  incrusted 
with  Jewish  dogmatism.  On  the  other  hand,  some  look  upon 
those  apocalyptic  elements  as  survivals  which  the  Mind  of  Jesus 
itself  failed  to  slough  ofif.  But  it  is  possible  that  these  are 
imaginative  and  emotional  expressions  of  certain  great  spiritual 
ideas  which  demand  poetic  and  moral  insight  in  us,  and  can  never 
be  interpreted  at  the  foot  of  the  letter.  Perceiving  this,  we  shall 
possess  a  clue  to  the  tangle  of  ideas  concerning  the  times  and 
modes  of  the  coming  of  God's  Reign.  Jesus  spoke  of  the  Sov- 
ereignty of  God  as  "  at  hand,"  or  "  drawing  near,"  as  already 
in  the  world,  or  as  coming  some  day  in  judgement  and  glory, 
while  in  His  parables  He  sketches  the  processes  of  a  gradual 
development.  Such  contrarieties  of  expression  were  not  due  to 
Christ's  vacillation,  nor  to  the  incompleteness  of  His  thought; 


Jesus'  Message  of  the  Sovereignty  of  God      99 

they  suggest  rather  certain  distinct  stadia  in  the  evolution  of  this 
moral  ideal  in  the  actual  history  of  men.  The  Sovereignty  of  God 
was  near  indeed;  it  was  already  in  the  midst  of  Jesus  and  His 
disciples;  it  is  spiritual  and  within  man;  it  will  leaven  society, 
and  it  will  be  consummated  in  the  final  paroiisia.  Our  Lord  spoke 
of  it  as  a  state  of  the  heart  attainable  here  and  now ;  it  was  the 
new  dispensation  to  be  looked  for  and  participated  in  by  all  His 
disciples:  but  again  He  described  it  as  an  eschatological  order, 
an  ideal  of  judgement  and  of  felicitation  belonging  to  the  future 
2igt  {ta  ixvGrrjpia  ttji  ^aaiXeiai  rov  &sov).  We  must  under- 
stand these  as  representing  different  phases  of  one  great  spiritual 
concept  in  the  Mind  of  Jesus,  signifying  in  their  several  stages 
the  realization  of  the  earthly  and  Heavenly  mission  of  Jesus.  In 
subsequent  chapters  we  shall  seek  to  show  something  of  the 
variegated  wisdom  of  this  great  unifying  thought  of  Jesus  and  the 
manifoldness  of  its  application  to  human  life :  at  this  point  it  is 
our  aim  to  mark  simply  that  by  this  watchword  Jesus  gave  pre- 
eminence to  the  honour  of  His  Heavenly  Father,  showing  that 
the  will  of  God  ought  to  be  man's  supreme  Law.  The  Sover- 
eignty of  God  is  no  gleaming,  cold  abstraction,  but  a  veritable 
sun,  sending  out  rays  of  spiritual  and  ethic  truth  applicable  to 
human  life  under  all  conditions,^ 

4.  This  evangel  of  the  Divine  Sovereignty,  then,  is  not  some 
ghostly  idea,  wholly  divorced  from  the  history  of  the  past;  it  is 
Israel's  imperishable  ideal  of  a  theocracy  transfigured  by  the 
Mind  of  Jesus.  In  His  thought  the  two  Jewish  conceptions  of 
"  the  Divine  Lordship  "  and  "  the  future  age  "  coalesced  and  pro- 
duced a  new  ideal  destined  to  be  the  consolation  of  the  entire 
world.  Therefore,  while  the  Sovereignty  of  God,  like  the  new 
Jerusalem,  comes  down  from  the  lustrous  heavens,  it  is  also  a 
shoot  from  the  dry  stock  of  Judaism.  The  theocratic  conception 
of  the  Jewish  mind  contained  the  seed  of  a  universal  faith, 
although  before  Jesus  took  up  this  ideal  its  fine  gold  of  prophecy 
was  mingled  with  the  alloy  of  political  ambitions.  The  Kings  of 
Israel  were  called  the  "  anointed  of  Jehovah  " ;  and  when  the 
majesty  of  Israel's  princes  was  trampled  in  the  dust,  an  ex- 
pectancy sprang  up  in  Jewish  minds  that  some  Great  "  Anointed 
One  "  should  come  and  restore  the  fallen  kingdom,  "  In  no  part 
of  the  Old  Testament  does  the  Messiah  appear  as  Himself  the 

*  Mark  vi.  34,  nal  fjp^aro  SiddffKSiv  avTovg  tToXka. 


100  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

agent  of  redemption  in  virtue  of  His  own  proper  power.  The 
real  Redeemer  is  God;  the  Messiah  is  the  new  King  of  the  re- 
deemed people."  ^  In  the  preaching  of  John  the  Baptist,  there 
was  a  spiritual  revival  of  the  idea  of  an  Israel  independent  of 
fleshly  descent  from  Abraham  and  made  morally  fit  to  realize 
God's  Reign ;  but  even  John  clothed  his  message  in  national  forms. 
Jesus  delivered  this  spiritual  faith  of  the  Divine  Kingdom  from 
its  ancestral  limitations  and  political  swaddling-clothes.  While 
John  pointed  Jesus  out  as  the  divinely  appointed  Vicegerent  of 
God's  purpose,  he  failed  to  understand  His  mission,  confusing 
it  with  a  narrow  nationalism — patriotic  and  noble,  but  not  com- 
patible with  the  catholicity  of  Christ's  Humanity.  If  John  failed, 
it  is  hardly  imaginable  that  his  contemporaries  should  have  showed 
truer  insight ;  hence  it  happened  that,  for  the  most  part,  the 
Jewish  people  looked  for  an  earthly  Messianic  king.  The  land 
seethed  with  revolt  against  Roman  rule,  and  the  hardy  soldiers 
of  the  Empire  were  always  ready  to  swoop  down  upon  the  be- 
ginnings of  any  political  movement  and  crush  its  leaders.  Unless 
we  hold  in  view  these  conditions  of  Jewish  and  Roman  life  in 
the  Palestine  of  Jesus'  time,  we  shall  not  understand  His  silences, 
reserves  and  final  boldness  of  utterance.  A  premature  pronounce- 
ment upon  His  Messianic  title  would  have  stirred  the  enthusiasm 
of  thousands  of  incipient  rebels,  and  His  movement  would  have 
been  quenched  in  blood.  And  yet,  as  we  trace  the  unfolding  of 
His  purpose  and  life,  we  find  nothing  in  the  end  that  was  not 
implied  in  the  beginning;  the  plan  of  His  ministry,  while  super- 
ficially puzzling,  even  to  so  high  a  type  of  man  as  the  Baptist, 
evinces  the  highest  spiritual  sagacity.  Jesus  was  guilty  of  a 
sublime  inconsistency;  for,  while  He  attached  Himself  to  the 
popular  expectation.  He  renounced  all  political  and  material  am- 
bition;  He  took  up  John's  message  that 'the  Reign  of  God  was 
at  hand,  but  into  it  He  breathed  the  inspiration  of  His  own  unique 
Sonship.  He  adopted  the  old  prophetic  watchword,  but  He  gave 
to  it  a  new  meaning,  stripping  from  the  ideal  all  the  accidents  of 
national  ambition. 

5.     With  startling  egoism  Jesus  differentiated  His  ministry  in 

its  relation  to  the  Reign  of  God  from  the  work  of  all  predecessors. 

He  was  the  door  of  the  theocracy.     Questions  are  often  asked 

about  the  finality  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus.     The  answer  to  such 

*  D.  Costelli,  quoted  by  Dalman. 


Jesus'  Message  of  the  Sovereignty  of  God    101 

questions  must  be  largely  determined  by  the  self-consciousness  of 
the  Christ;  He  claimed  that  Moses  and  the  Prophets  had  spoken 
of  Him;  He  was  the  object  of  Israel's  predictions  and  hopes,  and 
He  predicted  the  coming  of  no  other,  although  He  foretold  His 
own  return  in  glory.  If  we  accept  these  features  of  His  teaching, 
we  must  believe  that  Jesus  Himself  had  an  ultimate  and  final 
value  for  the  Kingdom  of  God.  He  placed  Himself  in  connection 
with  the  truths  of  the  Old  Covenant,  not  like  Confucius  in  his 
relation  to  more  ancient  sages,  as  a  transmitter  simply,  but  as  the 
fulfiller  of  the  truth  of  the  old  order  and  creator  of  a  new  dis- 
pensation. Jesus  was  very  reverent,  yet  His  thought  was  essen- 
tially revolutionary.  He  refused  to  spend  time  in  patching  the 
old  garment  of  Judaism ;  nor,  to  use  His  companion-figure,  would 
He  pour  the  wine  of  His  new  teaching  into  old  dry  skins,  which 
would  assuredly  have  burst  in  the  fermentation  which  would  in- 
evitably follow.  It  is  easy  to  overlook  the  greatness  of  Jesus, 
because  of  the  very  symmetry  and  harmony  of  His  character : 
hence,  in  respect  to  His  veneration  for  the  old  and  His  gracious 
tact  in  speaking  of  His  forerunners,  many  writers  miss  the  radical 
change  He  deliberately  wrought  in  the  thoughts  of  His  disciples. 
John  was  the  Elias  who  closed  the  old  dispensation — the  last  of 
the  prophets  and  the  herald  of  the  Anointed  Son.  The  law  and 
the  Prophets  continued  until  John,  since  that  the  Reign  of  God 
is  preached.^  The  coming  of  Jesus  constituted  a  new  epoch ; 
His  ministry  produced  a  great  disruption,  and  made  a  boundary 
line  in  the  world's  history.  He  Himself  said,  "  The  time  is 
fulfilled,  and  the  Kingdom  of  God  approaches."  ^  "  It  was  not 
merely  the  content  of  the  conception  which  forms  the  kernel 
of  our  Lord's  teaching  that  was  new  and  original,  but  also  His 
application  of  the  term,  despite  the  fact  that  the  phrase  selected 
originally  belonged  to  the  religious  vocabulary  of  the  Jews. 
The  theocracy  about  to  make  its  entrance  into  the  world  was 
something  more  than  a  gratifying  realization  of  the  hopes  en- 
tertained regarding  it ;  it  was  a  creative  force  bringing  new  ideas 
in  its  train."  ^ 

6.  The  Angel  of  the  Annunciation  is  reported  to  have  fore- 
told that  the  new  Son  of  David  would  restore  the  Kingdom, 
And  when  we  trace  the  steps  of  the  Messiah's  ministry,  from 

*Luke  xvi.  i6.  'Mark  i.  14. 

'  The  Words  of  Jesus,  p.  139. 


102  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

His  renunciation  of  worldly  kingship  in  the  wilderness  right  on 
to  the  tragedy  on  Calvary,  it  becomes  apparent  that  all  His  acts 
and  words  were  directed  and  controlled  by  His  absorption  in  the 
realization  of  the  Divine  Sovereignty  in  man's  life.  It  provided 
the  motive  for  His  itineration,  and  gave  the  theme  of  all  His 
preaching,  {jxs  del  .  .  .  on  €i?  tovto  aTrsffTaX/xai.^)  The 
meaning  Jesus  attached  to  the  old  watchword  came  to  Him  in 
His  consciousness  of  Divine  Sonship;  the  Father  reigned  in  His 
own  soul,  and  He  delighted  to  represent  the  Sovereign  as 
"  Father."  There  are  critics  who  deprecate  the  transference  of 
emphasis  from  the  teaching  to  the  Person  of  Jesus,  yet  as  a  matter 
of  fact  there  is  no  divorce  possible  between  these  two;  His  ethic 
was  but  the  unfolding  of  His  own  inward  consciousness.  The  pre- 
eminence given  to  the  Christ  in  the  Apostolic  Age  did  not  involve 
any  suppression  of  the  supremacy  of  the  Kingdom  which  Jesus 
had  taught.  As  we  follow  out  the  ministry  of  Jesus,  it  will 
become  ever  plainer  that  the  Kingdom  was  mediated  through 
the  consciousness  of  Jesus.  The  peculiar  insistence  upon  His 
own  Messiahship,  in  the  later  months  of  His  ministry,  was  not 
due  to  the  abnormal  development  of  egoism,  but  to  the  removal 
of  restraints  that  had  sealed  His  lips  at  the  beginning.  He  had 
evaded  all  popular  allurements  to  the  exercise  of  temporal  power, 
and  had  refused  to  be  made  the  people's  King;  but  when  His 
Spiritual  Mission  could  no  longer  be  imperilled  by  crude  mis- 
understandings. He  calmly  asserted  His  claim  to  supremacy. 
Before  Pilate,  He  asserted  His  Kingship — "  for  this  end  have 
I  been  born,  and  for  this  end  am  I  come  into  the  world,  that 
I  might  bear  witness  to  the  truth."  ^  Again  in  the  judgement- 
hall  Jesus  said,  "  My  Kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,  then  would 
my  ministers  strive  that  I  should  not  be  given  over  to  the  Jews, 
but  now  is  my  Kingdom  not  from  hence."  In  making  such 
claims  to  sovereignty,  Jesus  did  not  usurp  any  function  that  had 
not  been  given  to  Him ;  royal  dignity  had  been  committed  to 
Him  as  the  Son  of  Man.  We  cannot  interpret  such  claims  as 
the  deposition  of  the  Heavenly  Father ;  Jesus  spoke  and  acted  as 
God's  representative  in  the  world  of  men.  He  felt  Himself  to  be 
a  projection  of  the  Divine  Will  into  our  history;  He  was  the 
Son  of  God,  God's  alter  ego.  While  through  His  words  there 
came  a  Divine  declaration,  we  read  the  Divine  fiat  in  all  that  He 

'Luke  iv.  43.  -John  xviii.  37. 


Jesus'  Message  of  the  Sovereignty  of  God    103 

was  and  did  and  suffered;  in  Him  the  Divine  Reign  was  estab- 
lished; but  this  involved  the  annulment  of  all  that  was  contrary 
to  God's  Will ;  it  cost  conflict,  agony  and  tragedy,  and  issued  in 
Redemption. 

7.  The  idea  of  God's  Sovereignty  which  Jesus  established 
bears  some  relation  to  the  great  order  of  the  universe ;  it  is  not 
a  detached  dream,  or  a  new  Jerusalem  built  in  the  clouds ;  it  is 
in  vital  connection  with  all  the  works  of  God.  In  the  Cosmos, 
or  order  of  Nature  in  time  and  space,  God  has  manifested  the 
supremacy  of  His  mighty  Will.  Jesus  possessed  and  breathed 
forth  a  poetic  as  well  as  a  religious  view  of  Nature;  the  lilies 
of  the  field,  the  wild  birds  of  the  air,  the  clouds,  winds  and  all 
the  myriad  parts  of  Nature  were  looked  upon  by  Him  as  under 
the  immediate  control  of  the  Heavenly  Father.  His  view  was 
that  the  whole  constituted  a  providential  order ;  and  some  take  it 
for  granted  that  science  has  acted  upon  this  naive  faith  of  Jesus 
as  the  Hammer  of  Thor.  But  while  the  Great  Teacher  threw 
His  consciousness  and  thought  of  the  world  into  the  language  of 
a  prescientific  age,  and  used  earth  and  sky,  bird  and  flower, 
as  confirmatory  of  His  own  trust  in  the  Sovereign  Will  of  the 
Father,  we  shall  do  no  more  than  justice  in  admitting  that  the 
fundamental  thought  of  Jesus  concerning  the  Reign  of  God  has 
done  more  than  any  other  doctrine  of  antiquity  to  aid  the  human 
mind  in  its  task  of  unifying  phenomena  under  the  idea  of  Law. 
The  power  of  human  understanding  is  not  commensurate  with 
the  vastness  and  mystery  of  Nature,  and  in  the  span  of  man's 
life  Nature's  order  often  bears  little  semblance  to  justice.  But  it  is 
in  the  crown  of  the  great  processes  of  organic  evolution — in 
the  human  soul — that  we  find  a  clue  to  the  meaning  of  God's 
Reign.  "  The  injustice  of  Nature,"  says  Maeterlinck,  "  ends  by 
becoming  justice  for  the  race ;  she  has  time  before  her,  she  can 
wait,  her  injustice  is  of  her  girth.  But  for  us  it  is  too  over- 
whelming, and  our  days  are  too  few.  Let  us  be  satisfied  that 
Force  should  reign  in  the  universe,  but  Equity  in  our  heart."  ^ 
History,  in  spite  of  its  lapses  and  enigmas,  shows  a  marked 
dramatic  tendency  toward  the  denouement — spiritual,  voluntary 
surrender  to  the  Will  of  God — in  which  state  men  cease  to  be 
slaves  and  become  sons  of  the  theocracy  {oi  vioi  rr/i  ftaaikelai). 
In  broken  and  partial  ways  Israel's  prophets  had  conceived  of 
*  The  Buried  Temple,  p.  55. 


104  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

Jehovah  as  reigning  in  nature  and  history ;  but  Jesus  penetrated 
to  the  heart  of  this  conception  and  universaHzed  its  appHcation — 
boldly  defined  the  aim  of  this  Divine  Sovereignty  to  be  the  salva- 
tion and  eternal  life  of  men.  The  seeming  injustice  that 
Maeterlinck  attributes  to  the  brevity  of  man's  participation  in 
Nature's  order  is  balanced  and  rectified  by  the  thought  of  Jesus 
that  in  His  Father's  house  are  many  mansions.  The  "  providen- 
tial "  order  set  forth  in  Christ's  conception  of  God's  Kingdom 
is  not  irrelevant  to  the  scientific  view  of  Nature;  it  is  a  deeper 
insight  into  the  Spirit  which  creates  Nature,  and  it  is  an  ideal 
which  can  only  be  realized  in  history  through  the  voluntary  co- 
operation of  man.  Repentance  is  the  rule  of  admission  into 
the  new  theocracy — the  detachment  of  the  will  from  evil  and  the 
attachment  of  the  inner  personality  to  God  in  spiritual  surrender. 

8.  Although  the  apocalyptic  language  ascribed  to  certain 
passages  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  in  regard  to  the  Sovereignty 
of  God  is  inherently  distasteful  to  the  modern  mind,  we  must 
recognize  that  such  a  manner  of  speech  enabled  Jesus  to  set 
His  ideal  free  from  the  trammels  of  nationalism.  The  depth 
and  tenacity  of  the  political  hope  among  the  Jews  revealed  them- 
selves among  the  disciples,  even  on  the  way  to  Calvary ;  for 
they  quarrelled,  in  their  tragic  failure  to  understand  Jesus,  about 
their  respective  merits  to  the  highest  places  in  the  Kingdom. 
And  even  more  remarkable  is  the  fact  that,  after  the  resurrection, 
they  questioned  their  Lord  concerning  His  intention  to  restore 
the  Kingdom  to  Israel.  The  originality  of  Christ's  spiritual 
ideal  placed  Him  in  a  pathetic  isolation  throughout  His  ministry. 
Jesus  viewed  the  idea  of  God's  Sovereignty  in  the  light  of  His 
own  regenerating  ethic  and,  while  recognizing  it  to  be  a  real 
factor  in  this  age,  gave  it  a  further  eschatological  reference.  (eV 
tea  xaipcp  rovrcp  and  iv  rep  aicavi  rep  ipxofjiivcp.)  ^  The  for- 
giveness of  sins  is  a  present  grace  of  God's  Sovereignty,  and 
it  is  also  a  pledge  of  the  eternal  life.  The  "  life,"  however,  which 
will  be  consummated  at  the  end  of  the  age  is  a  principle  possessed 
now  by  all  who  receive  the  Reign  of  God.  (i^  ffvvriXsaiTov 
dicavo?' — Matthew.)  The  proclamation  of  this  evangel  caused 
confusion  in  minds  enslaved  by  Jewish  preconceptions.  The 
Pharisees  inquired  when  this  Reign  would  come,  imagining  that 
it  was  contingent  upon  a  visible  constitution  in  Palestine.  Jesus 
*  Mark  x.  30 ;  Luke  xviii.  30 ;  Matt.  xii.  32. 


Jesus'  Message  of  the  Sovereignty  of  God    105 

replied  that  it  had  come  already — without  pomp  and  undated 
by  outward  signs  {ov  j^^ra  naparrjpriaecoi).  "  If  I  by  the  Spirit 
of  God  cast  out  demons,  then  the  Kingdom  of  God  has  already 
come  upon  you."  ^  Neither  isolation  nor  misunderstanding, 
neither  temptation  nor  antagonism  caused  in  Jesus  aught  of 
vacillation  or  incertitude.  His  doctrine,  His  noble  ethic.  His 
healing  miracles,  His  undoing  of  death.  His  own  self-sacrifice, 
were  the  expression  of  this  dominating  enthusiasm  for  the  King- 
dom. This  Spiritual  idealism  burned  at  white  heat  in  His 
mind.  It  was  an  eschatological  ideal  coloured  with  Jewish 
apocalypse,  and  it  was  equally  prophetic  and  moral  with  its 
application  in  the  present. 

9.  Further  analysis  of  its  content  shows  that  the  ethic  of 
Heavenly  citizenship  ^  (  Ttokirsvfia  )  could  find  expression  only 
in  the  terms  of  filial  relationship.  The  citizen  is  a  son ;  the 
Sovereign  is  the  Father.  The  essence  of  God's  gift  of  eternal 
life  is  inward  righteousness ;  the  perception  of  this  Divine  Sover- 
eignty is  conditioned  by  one's  birth  from  above,  while  entrance 
into  it  in  the  symbol  of  baptism  involves  renunciation  of  self-will 
and  the  reception  of  a  quickening  spirit  from  God.  Outward 
possessions  are  hindrances ;  for  it  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  pass 
through  the  eye  of  a  needle  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  the 
Kingdom.  Penitent  publicans  and  repentant  harlots  are  eligible 
for  spiritual  citizenship,  while  self-righteous  Pharisees  are  re- 
jected. This  theocracy  is  the  summum  bonum:  for  its  sake  it 
is  wise  to  sacrifice  everything  that  hinders  one's  attaining  unto 
it ;  a  maimed  life  in  the  Kingdom  is  preferable  to  sensuous  ease 
outside.  In  the  parables  of  Jesus,  this  state  is  represented  as 
the  pearl  of  great  price — the  hidden  treasure  of  inestimable 
value,  for  which  it  would  be  reasonable  to  abandon  everything 
else.  But  in  their  daily  lives  the  Sons  of  the  Kingdom  are 
called  upon  to  bear  a  cross,  to  drink  a  bitter  cup,  and  to  be 
baptized  with  suflfering;  in  a  word,  each  one  reproduces  the  life 
of  his  Lord.  On  the  other  hand,  within  this  Kingdom  the  jurse 
of  the  world  is  transmuted  into  beatitude,  and  such  experiences 
as  poverty  and  hunger  become  sources  of  joy.  Its  laws  are  ful- 
filled by  love,  although  the  character  of  this  love  is  marked  by 
sweet  severity,  and  the  gate  and  way  of  it  are  described  by  Jesus 
as  strait  and  narrow.  In  the  theocracy  the  sole  standard  of 
'Matt.  xii.  28;  Luke  xvii.  20.  'Phil.  iii.  20. 


106  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

greatness  is  sacrificial  service;  and  obedience  to  the  Will  of  the 
Heavenly  Father  is  the  one  proof  of  membership. 

lo.  Although  such  a  conception  of  the  Kingdom  will  be 
acknowledged  as  beautiful,  noble  and  strenuous,  it  is  judged  by 
some  to  carry  in  itself  the  peril  of  unbalanced  subjectivity.  Men 
must  live  their  lives  in  the  robust  faith  that  the  external,  and 
seemingly  trifling  concerns  of  the  natural  order  have  moral 
value.  If  emphasis  upon  the  inner  springs  of  action  should  issue 
in  stoic  scorn,  then  faith  will  rightly  be  condemned  as  other- 
worldly. Tolstoy  is  an  example  of  religious  individualism  tend- 
ing to  theoretic  anarchy.  The  whole  teaching  of  Jesus,  however, 
contradicts  the  dream  of  the  eremite ;  the  theocracy  is  a  moral 
community.  While  love  must  have  God  for  its  supreme  Object, 
Jesus  teaches  us  that  he  who  loves  not  his  brother  cannot  love 
the  unseen  God.  The  cross-bearing  He  inculcated  is  not  an  end 
in  itself;  it  is  for  the  ransom  of  souls;  and  the  ministry  He 
demands  has  for  its  aim  the  service  of  mankind.  The  Messiah 
predicts  a  final  judgement,  and  the  criterion  of  Christ  will  be 
the  measure  of  our  philanthropy.  Jesus  identified  Himself  with 
the  lowliest ;  and,  inasmuch  as  we  help  them,  we  minister  to  Him. 
The  criticism  has  sometimes  been  made  that  the  Society  of  Jesus 
had  no  economic  relevance  to  the  actual  conditions  of  life. 
Our  modern  social  democrats  admire,  yet  pity  Him,  as  an  un- 
practical dreamer — "  a  beautiful  and  ineffectual  angel,  beating  in 
the  void  His  luminous  wings  in  vain."  "  Jesus  stood  and  stands 
alone,  supreme  over  all  other  great  religious  reformers  in  every- 
thing that  concerns  the  heart  and  the  affections.  But  His  in- 
tellectual grasp  did  not  extend  beyond  the  requirements  of  a 
single  epoch."  ^  The  adequate  answer  to  this  criticism  can  be 
given  only  in  our  subsequent  treatment  of  the  whole  teaching 
of  Jesus.  Meanwhile  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  Jesus  could 
not  have  dealt  with  politics,  literature,  art  and  education  in  those 
days  without  at  once  arousing  the  vengeance  of  the  Roman 
power;  and  even  could  He  have  evaded  its  vigilance,  any  direct 
treatment  of  these  important  matters  would  have  resulted  in  the 
enslavement  of  His  timeless  ideal  of  the  Kingdom  in  the  bonds 
of  temporary  and  fugitive  modes  of  human  opinion.  His  seeming 
detachment  from  the  circumference  of  life  arose  from  His 
fidelity  to  the  central  principle  of  eternal  life.  Jesus  did  not 
'Mazzini's  Collected  Esays,  vol.  v.,  p.  365. 


Jesus'  Message  of  the  Sovereignty  of  God    107 

scorn  the  objective  side  of  life,  but  in  the  common  facts  He 
read  an  ideal  significance ;  He  accepted  His  nation's  history  as  a 
channel  of  Divine  revelation,  and  even  imperilled  His  own 
spiritual  conception  by  attaching  it  to  the  Jewish  Messianic  hope. 
Jesus  did  not  advocate  medical  reforms  or  improved  methods 
of  sanitation,  yet  His  miracles  of  healing  declared  the  high  value 
He  put  on  physical  health.  He  did  not  declare  that  democracy 
was  the  only  legitimate  form  of  government ;  nor  did  He  evince 
an  elementary  acquaintance  with  the  dire  problems  of  political 
economy:  yet,  by  His  whole  treatment  and  estimate  of  human 
life,  He  stamped  as  inherently  evil  every  institution  that  en- 
slaves the  soul  or  degrades  the  individual.  The  relation  of  the 
theocracy  to  the  outward  order  may  be  difficult  to  define ;  it  may 
be  hard  to  reconcile  the  antitheses  of  duty  such  as  self-renuncia- 
tion and  self-reaHzation ;  but  the  ideal  of  God's  Sovereignty 
affords  a  regulative  and  creative  principle  of  the  best  types  of 
life;  while  by  breathing  into  the  world's  heart  His  own  Spirit, 
Jesus  has  done  more  than  any  other  reformer  to  alleviate  the 
ills  of  man's  state,  and  to  fill  the  life  of  His  followers  with  positive 
good. 

II.  To  sum  up  the  various  fragments  of  Christ's  mighty  con- 
ception, which  have  been  but  meagrely  treated  in  the  foregoing 
paragraphs,  it  may  be  said  that  Jesus  represented  the  Kingdom 
of  God  as  both  present  and  militant,  as  future  and  triumphant. 
Modern  authors  have  made  manifest  the  contrariety  of  opinion 
concerning  these  two  phases  of  our  Lord's  teaching.  Well- 
hausen,  for  example,  throws  emphasis  upon  the  deep  and  beauti- 
ful sayings  about  love  and  life,  duty  and  faith  toward  God, 
and  discards  the  apocalyptic  elements  as  "  the  old  garments  of 
Judaism  " ;  the  younger  Weiss  adopts  a  view  diametrically  op- 
posed, and  makes  the  Parousia  the  most  central  and  characteristic 
part  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  and  leaves  little  if  anything  to 
relate  the  Kingdom  to  the  actualities  of  the  age.  But  if  we 
accept  the  general  accuracy  of  the  Gospels,  there  need  be  no 
conflict  between  these  different  aspects ;  we  see  that  Jesus  some- 
times taught  that  God's  Reign  had  already  come  as  a  present  fact, 
and  also  as  a  mighty  factor  in  the  producing  of  a  new  age. 
The  two  stadia  are  connected  by  the  simple  law  of  development. 
His  Kingdom  is  as  a  mustard-seed  growing  in  the  midst  of  men, 
though  the  process  be  never  so  imperceptible.     In  man's  attempt 


108  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

to  embody  the  new  order  in  appropriate  institutions  and  activities, 
evil  and  good  will  be  inevitably  blended ;  until  the  time  of 
harvest,  wheat  and  tares  will  grow  together.  Although  these 
processes  of  development  are  gradual  and  of  a  spiritual  character, 
there  will  be  certain  crises  when  Messiah  will  come  in  new 
accessions  of  power.  While  the  feet  of  Jesus  were  planted  on 
the  firm  ground  of  present  actualities.  His  eyes  penetrated  the 
mists  of  the  future,  and  in  His  vision  the  ultimate  realization  of 
His  ideal  was  assured.  He  predicted  a  plurality  of  advents ; 
one  parousia  was  to  be  seen  by  some  of  His  hearers  before  they 
died,^  while  another  divine  event  is  undated  even  in  His  own 
thought.^  One  advent  will  cause  distress  to  the  nations,  and  yet 
for  His  disciples  it  will  be  as  a  redemption  {ccTioXvrpGoai^).^ 
The  perspective  of  the  future  development  of  the  Kingdom  may 
have  been  blurred  even  in  the  vision  of  Jesus;  but  the  goal 
gleamed  afar  in  glorious  certitude,  and  is  set  forth  in  the 
language  of  Jewish  apocalypse.  The  attainment  of  a  sound  view 
of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  which  we  are  seeking,  depends  upon 
our  looking  steadily  at  His  central  principle  while  we  grasp 
all  the  phases  and  applications  of  it  in  one  whole.  If  we  insist 
upon  stripping  away  all  the  apocalyptic  utterances  as  non-essential 
to  the  conception  of  Jesus,  His  doctrine  is  reduced  to  a  torso — 
a  beautiful  fragment,  which  must  be  completed  in  our  imagina- 
tion. In  the  Gospels  themselves,  the  realities  of  the  Present  are 
never  allowed  to  melt  into  dreams  of  the  Ideal ;  nor  does  Jesus 
ever  lose  His  certainty  of  the  future  realization  of  His  fair 
Ideal  as  He  looks  upon  the  struggling,  conflicting  experiences 
of  the  present  time.  His  faith  demanded  the  future;  the  con- 
sistency and  impressiveness  of  His  teaching  depend  upon  the 
Parousia;  He  convinces  us  that  the  processes  of  renovation  which 
were  initiated  by  Him  in  Galilee  must  be  completed  beyond  the 
bounds  of  mortal  life. 

^Matt.  xvi.  28;  Mark  ix.  i.  "Mark  xiii.  32. 

*Luke  xxi.  25,  28,  31. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  MIRACLES  OF  JESUS 

I.  The  preeminence  of  Jesus  among  men  was  acquired  not 
only  by  the  recognized  authority  of  His  teaching,  but  also  in  part 
by  the  remarkable  character  of  His  works.  Whatever  may  be  the 
modern  feeling  toward  miracles,  there  can  be  no  suppression 
of  the  fact  that  a  miraculous  element  is  inextricably  blended  with 
the  narratives  of  our  Gospels ;  and  every  attempt  to  separate  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  from  these  extraordinary  activities  reduces 
each  Gospel  to  tattered  fragments  of  tradition,  which  in  the 
critical  process  have  been  deprived  of  vitality  and  cogency. 
"  Go  and  report  to  John  what  you  have  seen  and  heard :  the 
blind  regain  their  sight,  the  lame  walk,  the  lepers  are  cleansed, 
the  deaf  hear,  the  dead  are  raised,  the  poor  have  the  glad  tidings 
preached  to  them."  If  it  be  objected  that  in  these  words  Jesus 
was  simply  using  an  oriental  habit  of  figurative  speech,  which 
must  not  be  taken  prosaically,  our  reply  must  be  that,  whether 
this  saying  be  metaphoric  or  literal,  the  belief  in  the  occurrence 
of  miracles  is  not  an  embellishment,  but  a  part  of  the  very 
ground-plan  of  the  Gospels.  There  is  a  criticism  which,  starting 
from  the  postulates  of  Naturalism,  traverses  the  ground  like  a 
destroying  fire,  and  leaves  behind  a  trail  of  desolation.  For 
this  reason,  if  for  no  other,  believers  in  the  Gospels  must  them- 
selves take  up  the  legitimate  task  of  criticism,  and  discriminate 
with  uttermost  frankness  between  the  possible  exaggerations  of 
tradition  and  the  core  of  historic  fact.  If  we  study  the  Gospels 
afresh  with  this  purpose,  it  becomes  apparent  to  us  that  the 
ancient  writers  lived  under  the  influence  of  totally  different 
conceptions  of  nature  from  those  which  influence  modern  thought. 
The  scientific  view  of  the  world  groups  all  phenomena  into 
uniform  classes,  and  explains  them  by  universal  laws.  The  revo- 
lution in  thought  brought  about  by  such  a  conception  was  illus- 
trated by  a  conversation  I  once  had  with  a  Confucian  scholar  in 
China.  In  explaining  a  passage  in  the  Chinese  classics  to  me, 
he  recited,  with  naive  belief  in  its  actual  occurrence,  an  An- 

109 


110  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

dromeda-like  legend,  but  instead  of  a  Perseus  coming  to  the 
victim's  rescue,  the  sea-monster  who  ravaged  a  whole  district 
and  took  toll  of  the  most  precious  life  was  propitiated  by  a 
scholar,  who,  recognizing  that  there  was  a  spirit,  or  ling,  in  all 
things,  wrote  a  classic  aphorism,  and  threw  it  into  the  water. 
The  ravenous  fish  swallowed  the  writing  and  became  a  thrall 
to  the  wisdom  of  the  sages,  no  more  seeking  to  be  satisfied  by- 
human  sacrifice.  Only  after  repeated  interrogation  could  I  be 
convinced  that  the  myth  was  taken  by  my  friend  with  most 
prosaic  literalness.  That  Chinese  scholar  strangely  enough 
helped  me  to  understand  John  Henry  Newman  when  he  said, 
"  I  think  it  is  impossible  to  withstand  the  evidence  which  is 
brought  for  the  liquefaction  of  the  blood  of  St.  Januarius  at 
Naples,  or  for  the  motion  of  the  eyes  of  the  pictures  of  the 
Madonna  in  the  Roman  States.  ...  I  firmly  believe  that  the 
relics  of  the  saints  are  doing  innumerable  miracles  and  graces 
daily.  I  firmly  believe  that  before  now  saints  have  raised  the 
dead  to  life,  crossed  the  seas  without  vessels,  multiplied  grain 
and  bread,  cured  incurable  diseases,  and  stopped  the  operations 
of  the  laws  of  the  universe  in  a  multitude  of  ways."  But  for 
most  men,  to  try  to  adopt  such  a  mental  attitude  in  the  twentieth 
century  would  be  to  sin  against  reason,  to  fight  against  the  light 
of  our  age.  And  further,  if  the  mighty  works  of  Jesus  be  co- 
ordinated with  ecclesiastical  legends  and  classic  myths,  the  mod- 
ern thinker  will  inevitably  become  incredulous  of  all  miracles. 
There  must  be  discrimination  between  the  miracles  of  Jesus  and 
the  Aberglaube  of  legend,  and  such  a  primary  differentiation  is 
justified  by  our  idea  of  Jesus  Himself. 

2.  While  we  are  repelled  by  the  over-positiveness  of  those 
who  declare  that  "  miracles  do  not  happen,"  the  change  of 
standpoint  in  viewing  the  phenomena  of  nature  and  history  makes 
it  incumbent  upon  us  to  explain  how  we  can  share  in  the 
scientific  enlightenment  of  the  age,  and  still  accept  the  miraculous 
stories  of  the  New  Testament.  There  is  room,  however,  even 
in  the  twentieth  century,  for  humble  agnosticism  on  the  one 
hand  and  devout  belief  on  the  other ;  for,  while  science  has 
driven  back  the  shadow  of  the  Great  Unknown  an  inch  or  two, 
the  cloud  of  mystery  still  encircles  us.  It  is  a  fascinating  con- 
ception that  Nature  is  a  closed  system  of  matter  and  force 
operating  according  to  mechanical  laws  without  diminution  or 


The  Miracles  of  Jesus  111 

increase  of  energy.  "  We  have  frequently  seen,"  says  Mr. 
Balfour,  "  in  the  history  of  thought  that  any  development  of 
the  mechanical  conception  of  the  physical  world  gives  an  impulse 
to  materialistic  speculation.  Now,  if  the  goal  to  which,  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously,  the  modern  physicist  is  pressing,  be 
ever  reached,  the  mechanical  view  of  things  will  receive  an 
extension  and  a  completeness  never  before  dreamed  of.  There 
would  then  in  truth  be  only  one  natural  science — namely, 
physics;  and  only  one  kind  of  explanation — namely,  the  dy- 
namic." ^  Within  such  an  imaginary  circle  miracle  would  be 
impossible,  and  so  indeed  would  be  human  will ;  the  strict  con- 
servatism of  energy  results  only  in  physical  necessity,  and  is  in- 
compatible with  freedom  unless  we  postulate  dual  and  discon- 
nected realms  of  action.  The  same  writer  goes  on  to  say,  "  I 
believe  that  the  very  completeness  and  internal  consistency  of 
such  a  view  of  the  physical  world  would  establish  its  inadequacy. 
The  very  fact  that  within  it  there  seemed  no  room  for  Spirit 
would  convince  mankind  that  Spirit  must  be  invoked  to  explam 
it."  But,  when  we  reckon  with  all  the  factors,  we  perceive 
that  Nature  is  not  self-subsistent ;  it  is  related  to  thought,  pene- 
trated with  Reason,  as  is  shown  by  the  discovery  of  its  "  laws  " ; 
and  its  phenomena  are  grouped  into  an  intelligible  order.  There 
are  still  vast  curves  that  sweep  far  out  beyond  our  range  of 
vision;  and  it  is  only  by  an  act  of  faith  that  we  can  complete 
the  circle  of  Nature.  Its  order  expresses  harmony,  beauty  and 
purpose,  although  no  science  has  yet  been  able  to  set  forth 
the  end  of  this  vast  system.  There  is  no  rest  for  the  sole  of 
one's  foot  save  in  a  spiritual  interpretation  of  Nature;  no  new 
or  refined  materialism  can  obliterate  altogether  from  our  minds — 


"  The  sense  sublime 
Of  something  far  more  deeply  interfused, 
Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns. 
And  the  round  ocean,  and  the  living  air, 
And  the  blue  sky,  and  in  the  mind  of  man, 
A  motion  and  a  spirit  that  impels 
All  thinking  things,  all  objects  of  all  thought, 
And  rolls  through  all  things."  ^ 

*A.  J.  Balfour,  Essays  and  Addresses,  p.  321.  In  the  same  address 
("The  Nineteenth  Century")  the  writer  says,  "I  believe  that  the  very 
completeness  and  internal  consistency  of  such  a  view  of  the  physical  world 
{i.e.  the  mechanical  view)  would  establish  its  inadequacy"  (pp.  331-2)- 

2  Wordsworth. 


112  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

Where,  then,  shall  we  find  a  point  for  reconciliation  of  these 
two  necessary  conceptions  in  the  modern  Christian  mind — the 
Reign  of  Law  and  the  miraculous  operation  of  Jesus  in  our 
world?  The  transition  from  one  realm  of  thought  to  the  other 
is  often  accompanied  by  a  sense  of  shock  and  a  feeling  of 
incoherence.  The  Rev.  D.  S.  Cairns  points  out  that  the  two 
realms  can  be  viewed  as  co-existent  and  harmonious  from  the 
standpoint  of  teleology.  Having  quoted  great  authorities  in 
science  to  show  that  morphology  is  wedded  to  teleology,  he 
says :  "  Having  thus  granted  that  all  evolutionary  process  con- 
verges upon  some  supreme  end,  we  cannot  arbitrarily  arrest 
the  further  inquiry  as  to  the  nature  of  this  end,"  and  arrives 
at  the  conclusion  by  a  legitimate  chain  of  reasoning  that  the 
world-process  which  science  forecasts  leads  up  to  the  ultimate 
ideal  of  a  perfect  form  of  human  society.^  "  The  Gospels  also 
teach  us  that  all  God's  Providences  converge  upon  a  universal 
end,  which  is  nothing  else  than  the  most  perfect  form  of  Society, 
a  union  of  God  and  Humanity  in  the  '  Kingdom  of  God.'  "  The 
narrower  teleology  of  individual  providences  can  be  integrated 
harmoniously  in  this  wider  teleology  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and 
room  is  given  for  the  individualism  of  Christ's  Gospel.  The  elab- 
oration of  this  argument  might  be  a  valuable  achievement  in 
another  place,  but  here  all  we  have  sought  is  a  hint  as  to  the 
point  of  view  that  may  be  occupied  by  one  who  strives  to  be 
loyal  to  the  Gospels,  while  he  accepts  as  inevitable  the  scientific 
spirit  of  the  age.  The  materialist  seems  to  me  to  be  like  a 
gambler  who  at  first  insists  upon  playing  with  two  dice,  matter 
and  force,  and  then  surprises  us  by  turning  out  three  sixes ; 
by  sleight  of  hand  or  unconscious  trick,  he  has  introduced  a 
third  die  called  mind.  But  if  we  recognize  the  fact  that  mind 
is  the  prius  of  matter  and  force,  and  the  cause  of  all  order,  we 
shall  have  no  difficulty  in  acknowledging  from  the  beginning  a 
Hidden  Purpose  which  has  controlled  all  the  myriad  lines  of 
development  that  converge  upon  the  Ideal  of  Jesus — the  Sover- 
eignty of  God  in  the  world.  If,  then,  we  are  brought  to  accept 
this  spiritual  point  of  view,  much  of  our  involuntary  antagonism 
to  miracles  will  melt  away. 

3.     Our  view  of  personality  will  shed  light  and  influence  upon 
our  attitude  toward  the  miracles  of  the  Gospels.     Our  distinc- 
*  Christianity  in  the  Modern  World,  p.  239. 


The  Miracles  of  Jesus  113 

tions  between  natural  and  supernatural  are  relative  to  the  plane 
of  vision ;  the  higher  necessarily  appears  supernatural  to  that 
which  is  below ;  but,  if  viewed  from  the  apex,  all  things  except 
sin  and  evil  would  be  natural.  Man  in  his  present  state  is  only 
imperfectly  personal ;  within  him  is  found  a  mind  which  should 
rule  the  body:  he  is  of  nature,  and  yet  something  there  is  in 
him  above  nature  which  "  that  democratic  old  monster,"  termed 
by  St.  Paul  "  the  flesh,"  waits  to  pull  down.  In  our  personalities 
lie  undeveloped  potencies,  and  we  are  acutely  aware  of  an 
inward  disproportion :  hence,  if  we  call  our  present  state 
natural,  then  the  realization  of  our  own  ideal  would  be  super- 
natural. If,  then,  there  appeared  in  our  history  a  perfect  per- 
sonality who  actualized  all  human  potentialities,  and  who  was 
in  such  harmony  with  the  will  of  God  as  to  be  truly  the  Divine 
Son,  it  might  be  expected  that  much  of  His  activity  would 
appear  to  us  supernatural.  Recollecting  our  own  general  im- 
pression of  Jesus,  we  expect  an  elevation  and  distinction  in  His 
works  which  shall  be  congruous  with  our  ideal  of  perfect  person- 
ality. Kahler,  however,  warns  us  against  the  dogmatic  assump- 
tion that  we  understand  Christ's  Nature :  "  The  inner  course  of  a 
sinless  development  is  as  inconceivable  to  us  as  life  on  the  Sand- 
wich Islands  to  a  Laplander.  How  can  we,  who  are  so  different 
from  Him  in  the  very  roots  of  our  being  that  we  need  to  undergo 
a  new  birth  in  order  to  acquire  an  element  of  likeness  to  Him, 
pretend  to  apply  human  measures  to  His  development,  its  stages 
and  course?"^  It  is  only  by  the  idealization  of  what  is  best 
within  our  own  personalities  that  we  can  approximate  to  any 
understanding  of  the  life  of  Jesus.  But  while  we  recognize  the 
note  of  transcendence  in  the  Person  of  Jesus,  we  do  not  imagine 
Him  to  have  been  outside  the  scope  of  Nature's  laws  and  forces. 
The  phenomena  of  His  outward  life  are  conceived  by  us  as 
harmonious  with  the  true  order  of  the  universe,  when  viewed 
from  the  highest  point  of  intelligence.  The  miracles  reflect  the 
wisdom  and  love  of  a  perfect  humanity.  We  use  the  term 
miracle  to  signify  an  unusual  act  above  our  capacity  to  perform, 
but  which  must  be  accordant  with  the  laws  and  energies  of 
God's  whole  universe.  Miracle  would  be  impossible  if  our 
standpoint  were  materialistic  or  thoroughly  pantheistic;  but  in 
view  of  our  spiritual  interpretation  of  the  world  and  our  belief 

'Quoted  from   Somerville's  Cunningham  Lectures,  St.  Paul's  Concep- 
tion of  Christ,  p.  38. 


114  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

in  the  transcendence  of  perfect  personality  it  becomes  quite 
credible.  The  miracles  of  Jesus  are  not  arbitrary  and  capricious 
violations  of  the  laws  of  the  universe;  they  are  rather  parts  of 
a  wider  and  higher  system.  From  the  standpoint  of  the  unique 
and  preeminent  character  of  Jesus,  the  miracles  of  the  Gospels 
are  natural ;  that  is,  they  are  harmonious  with  the  Divine  order 
of  the  world.  Apart  from  the  personality  of  Jesus,  such  events 
as  the  change  of  water  into  wine,  the  multiplication  of  loaves 
and  fishes,  and  the  raising  of  the  dead,  would  be  incredible;  we 
should  deem  them  the  gross  superstitions  of  inaccurate  ob- 
servers, or  the  legends  of  hero-worship.  I  frankly  confess  that, 
if  the  raising  of  the  widow's  son  at  Nain  were  attributed  to 
Apollonius  of  Tyana,  I  should  disbelieve  it;  but  such  is  the 
impression  made  upon  us  by  Jesus  that  we  judge  it  credible  as 
an  expression  of  His  pity  and  power.  We  do  not  accept  the 
dictum  that  "  however  one  may  think  concerning  a  miracle,  it  is 
impossible  for  historical  science  to  believe  in  Christian  miracle 
and  to  deny  the  non-Christian " ;  for  we  have  recognized  the 
overwhelming  importance  of  the  Personality  of  Jesus,  Whose  Will 
was  in  absolute  oneness  with  the  Will  that  maintains  the  universe. 
Such  an  idea  of  Jesus  must  not  be  taken  as  a  proof  of  historical 
accuracy  in  all  the  narratives  of  the  Gospels;  but  it  serves  to 
disarm  us  of  embarrassing  prejudices,  which  otherwise  would 
prevent  us  from  treating  these  writings  with  sufficient  earnestness. 

4.  When  we  read  carefully  these  miracle  narratives,  we  dis- 
cover certain  naive  and  incidental  touches  which  assure  us  of 
the  bona-fide  character  of  the  evangelists.  For  example,  the 
hypothesis  invented  by  the  enemies  of  Jesus,  that  He  cast  out 
devils  by  the  power  of  Beelzebub,  shows  beyond  contradiction 
that  He  was  successful  in  curing  lunacy  and  mysterious  nervous 
disorders.  Again,  being  vexed  by  the  rude  inhospitality  of  the 
Samaritans  at  a  village  through  which  Jesus  passed,  the  disciples 
desired  Him  to  call  down  fire  from  Heaven  to  destroy  them. 
This  incidentally  reveals  two  important  things :  first,  that  the 
disciples  themselves  believed  in  the  power  of  Jesus  to  perform 
wonderful  works;  second,  that,  if  the  miracles  of  the  Gospels 
had  depended  upon  the  inventiveness  of  over-fond  disciples,  they 
would  have  given  stories  of  quite  a  different  character  from  those 
recorded  in  the  New  Testament.  As  for  Jesus  Himself,  although 
He  did  not  repudiate  the  ability  ascribed  to  Him  of  working 


The  Miracles  of  Jesus  115 

miracles,  yet  He  disparaged  their  value  as  evidences  of  truth,  and 
often  refused  "  signs "  when  they  were  demanded  by  men 
morally  unprepared  to  receive  His  doctrine.  His  relatives  fain 
would  have  had  Him  display  His  power  to  overawe  men  into  be- 
lief: "  If  Thou  do  these  things,  show  Thyself  to  the  world  " ;  and 
His  enemies  sneered  at  Him  on  the  Cross,  "  He  saved  others ; 
Himself  He  cannot  save."  Thus  it  is  placed  beyond  dispute 
that  the  contemporaries  of  Jesus,  both  His  friends  and  His 
enemies,  believed  that  He  possessed  and  sometimes  exercised  the 
power  of  performing  miracles;  they  may  have  been  inaccurate 
observers,  confused  in  their  notions  of  causes  and  effects,  prone 
to  unconscious  exaggerations ;  but  it  is  incontrovertible  that  they 
believed  in  the  reality  of  the  miracles.  We  have  passed  the 
uncritical  age  when  any  claim  can  be  made  that  the  Gospels  are 
inerrant ;  but  in  the  acutest  tests  to  which  they  may  be  subjected, 
the  truthful  intention  of  the  witnesses  must  carry  some  weight 
even  against  modern  prejudices.  It  is  plain  that  the  ministry 
of  Jesus  was  not  in  word  alone,  but  also  in  deeds  of  surpassing 
wonder. 

5.  The  thought  of  the  miracles  having  congruity  with  the 
Person  of  Jesus  is  helpful  but  inadequate ;  and  as  the  reason 
will  not  rest  in  the  inexplicable,  men  propose  various  hypotheses 
to  account  for  the  wonderful  ministry  of  Christ.  It  has  been 
suggested  that,  within  the  limits  of  His  manhood,  Jesus  pos- 
sessed the  attributes  of  the  Deity;  omnipotence  and  omniscience 
belonged  to  Him,  and  found  expression  in  such  miracles  as  the 
feeding  of  the  multitudes  and  raising  of  the  dead.  If,  however, 
we  take  the  whole  of  the  records  in  the  Gospels  as  our  testimony, 
this  assumption  that  omnipotence  and  omniscience  were  attributes 
of  Jesus  is  not  justified,  and  it  involves  us  in  logomachy  and 
unending  speculations.  A  more  simple  and  yet  more  luminous 
explanation  of  miracles  is  surely  to  regard  them  as  due  to  Christ's 
union  with  God.  It  is  not  necessary,  at  this  stage  of  our  inquiry, 
to  make  an  exhaustive  analysis  of  this  unique  characteristic  of 
the  consciousness  of  Jesus  that  He  was  one  with  the  Father ;  for 
the  present  purpose  it  need  only  be  considered  as  a  moral 
harmony ;  Jesus  felt  an  immediate  dependence  upon  God's  Spirit, 
and  the  deliberate  and  determined  end  of  His  life  was  to  do  the 
Will  of  Him  that  sent  Him.  His  earliest  recorded  word  is, 
"  Wist  ye  not  that  I   must  be  about  My  Father's  business  ? " 


116  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 


»' 


His  dying  exclamation  was,  "  Father,  into  Thy  hands  I  commend 
My  Spirit."  If  we  pass  to  the  less  perfect  experiences  of  other 
men,  we  find  that  their  power  over  Nature  reposes  upon  some 
kind  of  intellectual  harmony  between  themselves  and  the  Divine. 
This  is  the  meaning  of  Lord  Bacon's  saying,  "  that  man  masters 
Nature  by  first  obeying  it."  The  power  of  the  scientist  to 
control  and  direct  his  experiments  toward  a  reasonable  issue 
depends  upon  his  interpretation  of  laws  and  forces  which  express 
the  mind  of  the  creative  Spirit.  But,  in  the  life  of  Jesus,  we 
find  a  perfect  realization  of  moral  union  with  God;  He  read  the 
expressions  of  the  Divine  Will  with  unique  accuracy,  and  found 
His  highest  joy  in  obedience.  It  was  His  meat  and  drink  to 
do  that  Will.  The  miraculous  energy  of  Jesus  had  its  source 
in  this  union  of  His  Will  with  God's  Will.  He  Himself  spoke 
of  the  resurrection  of  Lazarus  as  an  answer  to  prayer,^  and,  as 
Prof.  P.  Gardner  has  pointed  out,  prayer  is  the  nerve  and  centre 
of  this  union — "  the  divine  idea  of  the  surrender  of  the  will  of 
man  to  the  Will  of  God."  Nicodemus  acknowledged  the  mighty 
works  of  Jesus,  and  inferred  that  God  was  with  Him.^  St.  Luke 
records  that  "  the  power  of  Jehovah  was  present  with  Him  to 
heal,"  ^  and  affirms  that  the  miracles  of  Jesus  were  wrought  by 
"  the  finger  of  God."  All  the  heights  and  depths  of  the  human 
ideal  were  unveiled  in  Jesus;  His  moral  union  with  the  Father 
secured  to  Him  the  pleroma  of  the  Divine  Spirit.  Doubtless 
Jesus  shared  in  the  unscientific  illusions  of  His  age ;  but  all  His 
works  were  stamped  with  the  greatness  of  His  moral  character, 
and  His  unique  activities  were  signs  that  God's  Sovereignty  was 
established  in  His  Spirit.  He  Himself  spoke  of  His  "  works  " 
as  imitations  of  the  Father's  ministry ;  "  My  Father  worketh 
even  until  now,  and  I  work."  Although  we  can  no  longer  accept 
Pascal's  thought,  that  "  the  truth  of  a  doctrine  is  to  be  judged 
by  the  miracles  wrought  to  support  it,  and  the  reality  of  the 
miracles  is  to  be  judged  by  the  doctrine,"  yet  we  look  upon  "  all 
that  Jesus  began  both  to  do  and  to  teach  "  as  one  whole.  Cor- 
roborations of  His  teaching  came  in  His  works  of  healing,  and 
the  sin  of  the  Jews  in  rejecting  their  Messiah  was  correspondingly 
augmented  by  the  fact  that  they  beheld  His  life.  The  Master 
Himself,  however,  judged  the  evidential  value  of  His  miracles 
to  be  conditioned  by  the  moral  disposition  of  the  witnesses.  He 
refused  to  be  thought  of  as  a  mere  magician :  "  He  sighed  deeply 

*  John  xi.  22.  *  John  iii.  2.  ^  Luke  v.  17. 


The  Miracles  of  Jesus  117 

in  His  Spirit,  and  saith,  Why  doth  this  generation  seek  after  a 
sign  ?  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  There  shall  no  sign  be  given  unto 
this  generation."  ^  Yet  while  He  refused  to  indulge  a  prurient 
and  an  insatiable  thirst  for  signs,  still  He  knew  that  to  such 
as  were  morally  fit.  His  mighty  works  would  be  tokens  of  His 
redeeming  Will  and  attestations  of  His  power  on  earth  to  forgive 
sin. 

6.  Before  proceeding  to  make  a  brief  synopsis  of  Christ's 
miracles,  it  may  be  well  to  remind  ourselves  that  the  sine  qua 
non  of  all  of  them  was  faith,  either  as  exercised  by  the  sufiferer 
or  vicariously  manifested  in  the  friends.  Unbelief  obstructed 
the  flow  of  His  healing  power:  "  He  could  do  no  mighty  work 
there,  save  that  He  laid  His  hands  upon  a  few  sick  folk  and 
healed  them.  And  He  marvelled  because  of  their  unbelief."  - 
Jesus  understood  the  power  of  faith  over  mind  and  body,  and 
by  His  union  with  God  He  evoked  this  moral  activity  in  men's 
souls,  and  made  them  members  of  the  Kingdom  of  Life.  Faith 
is  a  great  psychic  force  in  the  realm  of  personal  life;  and 
whether  awakened  or  mediated  by  an  idol,  a  spring,  a  picture  of 
the  Madonna,  it  can  be  utilized  for  the  cure  of  diseases,  as  it 
has  been  at  Lourdes  and  at  "  Bethshan."  Jesus  was  a  great 
psychic  force  in  our  world;  He  deliberately  took  up  the  duty  of 
awaking  the  faith  of  men,  setting  forth  His  own  Person  as 
the  legitimate  object  of  faith.  The  belief  He  claimed  for  His 
words  was  to  dominate  the  conduct  of  His  followers,  and  thus 
their  faith  was  not  merely  a  hypnotic  response  to  the  magnetic 
power  of  His  Personality,  but  rather  a  moral  obedience  to  His 
doctrine.  But  while  He  presented  Himself  in  this  manner.  He 
ever  aimed  at  revealing  the  beneficent  power  of  God  and  at 
leading  men  to  the  Father.  In  the  actual  performance  of  His 
miracles.  He  did  not  confine  Himself  to  one  particular  method: 
there  were  times  when  He  uttered  only  a  word  of  command, 
or  laid  His  hand  upon  the  sick  person,  or  took  up  the  symbols 
of  clay  and  His  own  saliva  to  touch  the  blind  eyes  and  silent 
tongue.^  But  whatever  His  methods.  His  sole  aim  was  to  estab- 
lish a  reciprocity  of  faith  between  the  sufferers  and  Himself,  and 
so  to  exert  upon  them  all  the  Divine  force  resident  in  His  own 
Person. 

*Mark  viii.  12.  ^^ark  vi.  5-6. 

2  Mark  vii.  31-37;  viii.  2-26. 


118  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

7.  The  miracles  are  all  illustrative  of  the  Kingdom  that  Jesus 
set  up  in  the  midst  of  men ;  they  were  not  mere  wonders,  but 
"  signs  "  of  Divine  grace,  and  for  many  minds  proofs  of  a  new 
creative  force  in  the  world's  history.  The  prophet's  anticipation 
was  realized  in  Him :  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  be- 
cause He  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  to  the  poor;  He 
sent  me  to  proclaim  release  to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of 
sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised,  to 
proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord."  Jesus  shared  the 
popular  ideas  about  disease,  and  attributed  many  afflictions  to  the 
presence  of  demons  in  men.  He  rebuked  the  evil  spirits  who 
usurped  the  throne  of  human  reason,  and  sought  to  silence  their 
strange  impulse  to  proclaim  His  Messianic  title.  Mental  pathol- 
ogy is  even  yet  hedged  about  by  mystery,  and  dogmatic  denials 
of  demon-possession  pass  beyond  the  limits  of  ascertained  knowl- 
edge. Even  were  there  no  such  cases  now,  it  would  not  disprove 
the  demonology  of  the  New  Testament ;  since,  at  certain  crises 
of  history  and  under  peculiar  conditions  of  life,  phenomena 
might  arise  quite  different  from  what  may  come  to  pass  at  other 
times  and  in  other  places.  Should  it  be  that  men  may  ultimately 
treat  the  New  Testament  hypothesis  of  "  possession  "  as  merely 
a  temporary  mode  of  thought,  it  will  scarcely  be  doubted  that 
Jesus  wielded  a  remarkable  healing  power  over  minds  vexed  by 
aberrations  and  madness.  Such  a  change  in  point  of  view  would 
only  accentuate  the  important  distinction  between  the  material  of 
Christ's  Revelation  and  the  transitory  forms  of  its  expression. 
The  expulsion  of  the  evil  spirit  at  Capernaum  and  the  restoration 
of  sanity  to  the  demoniacs  of  Gadara,  notwithstanding  all  the 
inconsistencies  and  discrepancies  in  the  records,  show  us  the  place 
given  by  Jesus  to  health  and  reason  in  His  understanding  of 
God's  Kingdom.  "  He  came,"  says  Dr.  Hort,  "  as  the  Anointed 
King's  Son  to  His  own  inheritance,  to  deliver  a  holy  land  and  a 
holy  people  from  invaders  and  usurpers,  and  to  bind  up  the 
breaches  and  severances  which  they  had  wrought.  Sometimes 
the  intruders  are  diseases  or  disablements,  sometimes  they  are 
sins,  sometimes  they  are  unclean  spirits,  in  whose  working  disease 
and  sin  are  inextricably  blended.  But  in  all  cases  the  expulsion 
is  called  an  act  of  saving  or  salvation ;  and  it  follows  on  that 
homage  to  the  rightful  Sovereign  above,  and  to  Him  whom  He 
has  sent,  which  is  called  faith."  ^  With  this  power  to  dispossess 
'  The  Way,  The  Truth,  The  Life,  p.  102. 


The  Miracles  of  Jesus  119 

men  of  evil  spirits  Jesus  also  had  ability  to  impart  His  own  pure 
spirit  to  those  who  believed  in  Him.  Even  leprosy,  that  most 
obstinate  and  malignant  of  diseases,  yielded  to  His  Will.  He 
bore  men's  diseases,  and  when  their  wills  joined  with  His,  blind- 
ness passed  into  vision,  and  paralysis  gave  place  to  renewed 
health.  Such  was  the  influence  of  Jesus  that  involuntarily  He 
cured  a  believing  sufferer,  and  at  His  word  the  centurion's  son, 
or  servant,  lying  many  miles  away,  was  made  whole. 

8.  While  modern  telepathy  and  hypnotism  have  tended  to 
dissipate  the  rationalistic  prejudice  against  Christ's  healing  min- 
istry, no  psychical  research  has  been  able  to  soften  the  shock 
of  dismayed  incredulity  produced  by  the  narratives  of  His  power 
to  raise  the  dead.  The  return  of  a  soul  from  the  realm  of  the 
dead,  with  an  authentic  message  of  continuing  life,  might  be 
theoretically  esteemed  as  contributing  to  man's  well-being ;  but,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  few  persons  could  be  convinced  of  the  reality 
of  such  a  miracle  save  upon  the  most  intimate  and  personal  evi- 
dence. However  strong,  therefore,  the  evidences  for  the  alleged 
cases  of  resuscitation  in  the  Gospels,  there  will  be  felt  even  in 
devout  minds  a  movement  of  insubordination  to  so  great  a  miracle. 
The  only  credentials  that  will  satisfy  our  understanding  are 
those  that  we  find  in  our  impression  of  the  person,  aims  and 
moral  ascendency  exhibited  in  the  character  of  Jesus.  The  Gos- 
pels ascribe  three  instances  of  resurrection  to  the  exercise  of 
His  power.  In  the  case  of  Jairus'  daughter,  however,  the  critic 
may  legitimately  object  that  Jesus  Himself  declared  that  the 
maid  was  not  dead,  but  was  sleeping,  and  that  it  is  arbitrary 
to  say  that  He  used  the  term  sleep  as  a  metaphor.  The  second 
instance  is  that  of  the  restoration  of  the  widow's  only  son,^  but 
some  critics  deem  St.  Luke's  statement  to  be  insufficient  without 
other  support.  The  third  instance  is  that  of  the  raising  of 
Lazarus  ^  after  he  had  lain  in  the  tomb  four  days — an  event 
which,  according  to  St.  John,  became  the  turning-point  in  the 
tragedy  of  Christ's  public  ministry.  Those  who  dispute  the 
authority  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  are  not  likely  to  retain  belief 
in  this  stupendous  miracle;  and  some  even  of  those  who  believe 
that  it  was  written  by  the  aged  disciple,  are  inclined  to  treat 
the  story  of  Lazarus  as  a  parable.  Of  the  extreme  difficulty, 
even  for  those  who  believe  in  the  miracles  of  Jesus,  in  finding 
*  Luke  vii.  11-15.  'John  xi. 


120  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

a  place  for  the  interpolation  of  the  Lazarus  narrative  we  shall 
offer  suggestions  in  the  subsequent  treatment  of  the  Gospel 
chronology;  here  it  may  be  noted  that  this  miracle  is  often  felt 
to  be  a  burden  rather  than  a  support  for  faith.  The  direct  evi- 
dence for  the  historicity  of  these  three  narratives  is  too  slender 
to  convince  anyone  who  does  not  already  believe  in  Jesus ;  but, 
where  "  faith  "  exists,  these  miracles  are  "  signs "  of  the  re- 
newal and  enlargement  of  man's  life  effected  by  the  Mission  of 
Jesus.  Physical  death  is  but  an  incident  in  the  spirit's  continuing 
life ;  God  is  the  God  of  the  living,  not  of  the  dead.  In  the 
Kingdom  of  God  there  can  be  no  annihilation,  Jesus  came  to 
save  the  souls  of  men,  to  restore  life,  to  remove  all  evils  that 
impair  man's  vitality,  and  to  give  the  more  abundant,  eternal 
life.  It  was  fitting,  therefore,  that  besides  healing  diseases,  weak- 
nesses, losses  of  sight,  and  restoring  the  balance  to  the  insane 
mind.  He  should  also  show  His  complete  mastery  over  death 
by  undoing  death's  work. 

9.  To  complete  this  condensed  synopsis  of  Christ's  miracles, 
there  must  be  some  allusion  made  to  the  nature-wonders  which 
find  a  record  in  the  Gospels.  What  can  be  said  of  the  stories  of 
the  sea,  the  remarkable  draughts  of  fishes,  and  the  feat  of  walk- 
ing upon  the  waves ;  and  of  the  creative  marvels  of  the  multi- 
plication and  transformation  of  food-stuffs?  The  naturalistic 
trend  of  modern  speculation  has  driven  men  to  adopt  various 
expedients,  such  as  the  suggestion  that  the  traditions  of  Christ's 
life  gathered  these  marvels  in  the  processes  of  oral  transmission, 
or  that  perfectly  natural  phenomena  have  been  metamorphosed 
into  miracles.  For  example,  in  the  miracle  of  walking  on  the 
sea,  the  nucleus  of  fact  is  that  as  the  Master  came  swiftly  around 
the  bend  of  the  lake  it  appeared  in  the  twilight  as  though  He 
came  to  the  storm-tossed  men  across  the  waters.  Thus  we  have 
that  gracious  parable  of  Christ's  approach  to  His  Church  when- 
ever she  is  threatened  by  the  storms  of  persecution.  Again,  the 
Lord's  curse  of  the  barren  fig-tree  reads  like  a  parable  rather 
than  the  literal  occurrence  of  such  an  incident.  Many  also 
treat  the  multiplication  of  the  loaves  and  fishes  as  an  exaggerated 
account  of  the  magnanimity  evoked  by  Jesus,  under  whose  in- 
spiration the  crowds  were  lifted  beyond  the  prudence  of  selfish- 
ness. Concerning  such  interpretations  we  may  fearlessly  say 
that,  should  they  come  at  last  universally  to  be  accepted,  the 


The  Miracles  of  Jesus  121 

dignity  and  value  of  the  Person  and  Work  of  Jesus  would  not 
thereby  be  impaired.  If  many  devout  minds  hesitate  to  accept 
such  plausible  suggestions,  it  is  not  from  timidity,  but  from  the 
naive  feeling  which  haunts  them  still,  that  the  literal  interpreta- 
tion may  be  more  true  to  the  facts.  After  all  that  criticism  has 
done,  and  in  spite  of  our  own  inherent  distaste  for  the  marvellous, 
our  impression  of  the  fulness  and  variety  of  the  life  of  the  Son 
of  Man  makes  even  the  most  stupendous  of  the  Gospel  miracles 
appear  credible  in  our  eyes.  There  is  nothing  incongruous  with 
our  idea  of  Jesus  that,  in  occasional  single  acts.  He  reminded 
men  of  the  divine  operations  ever  going  on  throughout  Nature, 
and  showed  as  by  lightning  flashes  the  presence  of  God  working 
in  and  through  Himself.  Even  the  most  marvellous  "  signs  " 
emanated  from  compassion,  and  served  to  demonstrate  the  view 
of  Jesus  that  Nature  is  subservient  to  the  production  of  human 
personality.  He  shows  us  that  Nature  is  not  indifferent  as  to 
whether  our  intentions  be  good  or  evil ;  the  miracles  of  Jesus  show 
the  alienation  of  Nature  from  man  annulled,  and  matter  itself 
reconciled  to  Spirit  as  means  to  end.  In  His  hands  the  lower 
elements  of  the  world  became  media  for  nourishing,  preserving 
and  expanding  man's  life;  and  by  His  care  for  the  earthly  life 
He  sought  to  elicit  a  nobler  life  of  loving  obedience  to  the 
Sovereignty  of  God.  As  Dr.  Hort  says  again,  "  Every  word 
of  His  in  public  or  private,  every  action,  every  look  and  gesture, 
was  a  lesson  in  the  life.  His  acts  of  life-giving  in  the  lower 
sphere  were  the  foundation  of  His  life-giving  in  the  higher 
sphere.  Everything  which  entered  into  earthly  life  became  the 
image  and  vehicle  of  a  divine  grace,  a  spark  of  the  eternal  life." 
The  miracles  of  Jesus  were  acted  prophecies  and  parables  of  the 
salvation  of  the  Kingdom  of  God;  for  in  recognition  of,  and 
surrender  to  the  Divine  Reign,  all  lower  joys  and  inferior  neces- 
sities found  new  meaning,  and  touched  by  a  higher  principle  of 
life  the  material  things  effloresced  in  spiritual  realization  and 
acquired  sacramental  values.  We  do  not  yet  know  the  whole 
order  of  things  we  call  Nature;  to  take  in  all  her  phenomena, 
our  senses  will  require  further  extension  of  grasp;  but  already 
we  perceive  such  mysterious  capabilities  in  Nature's  relation  to 
Spirit,  that  we  easily  believe  new  potencies  would  be  evoked  by 
the  operation  of  a  morally  perfect  Will,  such  as  Jesus  attained 
unto  in  His  public  ministry. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    FIRST    BREACH    BETWEEN    JESUS    AND 
JUDAISM 

I.  Our  attempt  to  trace  the  beginnings  of  the  ministry  of 
Jesus  has  resulted  in  a  fuller  appreciation  of  the  tremendous 
authority  of  His  Person.  No  psychology  has  yet  explained  the 
origin  and  nature  of  the  overwhelming  influence  wielded  by  Jesus 
upon  His  contemporaries.  The  noblest  Humanitarian  ideal  ever 
offered  to  the  world  is  found  in  Jesus;  and  yet,  having  said  this, 
we  are  conscious  of  a  further  mystery  in  His  Person.  Compari- 
sons instituted  between  Him  and  other  religion-founders  and 
social  reformers,  or  moral  philosophers,  do  not  explain  Jesus: 
neither  do  they  alone  demonstrate  the  preeminence  of  His  teach- 
ing ;  they  show  rather  that  He  differs  from  all  others — that  there 
is  something  transcendent  in  Him.  While  we  have  sought  to 
give  the  fullest  recognition  to  the  influence  of  John  the  Baptist 
upon  the  incipient  stages  of  our  Lord's  work,  we  are  convinced 
that  the  ascetic  prophet  did  not  kindle  the  torch  of  Jesus;  at 
most,  he  can  only  have  precipitated  the  aspiring  purpose  of  the 
Carpenter  of  Nazareth  into  definite  action.  When  Jesus  came 
forth  from  the  desert,  there  was  in  His  conduct  a  distinct  effort 
to  prevent  any  appearance  of  rivalry  between  John  and  Himself — 
a  certain  self-suppression  out  of  deference  to  John's  seniority 
and  priority  in  the  prophetic  succession.  Although  He  took  up 
the  identical  message  announced  by  John,  yet  He  breathed  into 
it  an  entirely  new  meaning.  His  thoughts  were  full-orbed ; 
whatever  may  have  been  the  character  of  His  intellectual  and 
spiritual  discipline,  Jesus  evinced  an  already  attained  maturity 
and  pleromatic  wisdom  from  the  time  that  He  began  to  teach 
and  preach  in  Galilee.  The  note  of  excellence  in  His  teaching, 
felt  through  all  the  imperfect  medium  of  written  tradition,  is  its 
self-convincing  quality.  The  sayings  of  Jesus  establish  them- 
selves in  the  reason ;  they  are  like  light  flashing  forth  inherent 
truthfulness  and  inspiration.  But  this  authority  was  not  only  the 
chief  characteristic  of  His  message  about  the  Kingdom;  it  was 
also  exhibited  in  a  majestic  ease  and  calmness  in  His  exercise 

132 


The  Breach  Between  Jesus  and  Judaism      123 

of  healing  power.  At  His  word,  or  touch,  men  recovered  from 
their  diseases.  But  even  though  conduct  be  considered  as  three- 
fourths  of  Hfe,  we  can  only  look  upon  it  as  the  exhibition  of  a 
character  or  personality.  The  influence  of  Jesus  while  it  per- 
vaded all  His  speech  and  action,  was  resident  in,  and  emanated 
from,  the  indefinable  quality  of  His  Person.  He  threw  a  spell 
over  men's  minds;  the  Galileans  turned  toward  Him  with  an 
instinctive  recognition  of  His  leadership.  One  would  fain  lift 
the  veil,  and  see  how  Jesus  acted  upon  men  in  His  earlier  years. 
We  wonder  if  He  drew  them,  as  by  a  powerful  magnetism,  in 
that  period  of  His  silence.  It  may  be,  however,  that  this  spiritual 
mastery  over  men  was  not  attained  until  He  received  the  Baptism 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Brief  and  fragmentary  as  are  the  Gospel 
records,  we  can  see  that  Jesus  excited  the  wonder,  admiration, 
doubt,  approval  and  then  envy  of  the  people.  At  first  He  at- 
tracted men  generally;  soon  He  drew  to  Himself  a  few  persons 
with  special  affinities  and  potentialities ;  and  then,  alas !  He  be- 
gan to  repel  certain  men  of  distinction,  and  to  excite  their  fear 
and  dislike.  He  sifted  men ;  He  cleaved  them  asunder ;  He 
judged  them  involuntarily;  they  could  not  be  neutral  in  His 
presence :  those  who  were  not  for  Him  were  against  Him ;  those 
who  were  not  against  Him  were  for  Him. 

2.  Already  we  have  treated  of  the  twofold  message  of  Jesus 
concerning  God's  Reign  and  man's  repentance;  but  behind  these 
dominant  thoughts,  and  breathing  through  them,  we  may  now 
trace  certain  implied  or  expressed  claims  which  drew  men  to  fol- 
low Him,  or  stung  them  into  revolt  from  His  spiritual  regnancy. 
Even  if  we  accede  to  the  position  that  Jesus  made  no  explicit 
annunciation  of  His  Christhood  at  the  beginning  of  His  mission, 
it  is  patent  to  all  readers  of  the  New  Testament  that  the  first 
disciples  were  drawn  to  Him  by  the  simple  fact  that  His  authori- 
tative bearing  impressed  them  with  the  idea  that  He  could  be 
no  other  than  God's  Anointed.  Something  in  His  carriage, 
speech  and  action,  created  a  widespread,  incipient  belief  that  He 
was  the  fulfiller  of  Israel's  profoundest  hopes.  Although  with 
hope  there  was  doubtless  a  fear,  which  made  its  presence  felt 
upon  occasions,  that  He  might  not  be  all  that  His  friends  assumed. 
Jesus  was  Himself  responsible  for  engendering  this  belief  in  His 
Messiahship;  for  the  claim,  if  verbally  unexpressed,  was  virtually 
made  in  His  unique  assumption  of  authority.     Emerson  com- 


124  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

plained  that  the  writings  of  historical  Christianity  "  dwell  with 
noxious  exaggeration  about  the  Person  of  Jesus."  ^  If  the  lan- 
guage which  describes  Christ  to  Europe  and  America  "  paints 
a  demi-god,  as  the  Orientals  or  the  Greeks  would  describe 
Osiris  or  Apollo,"  then  as  students  of  history  this  so-called  "  first 
defect  of  historical  Christianity  "  must  be  attributed  by  us  to 
Jesus  Himself.  He  is  the  fons  et  origo  of  this  apotheosis ;  there- 
fore, it  is  in  vain  that  we  seek  to  escape  this  tendency  to  deifica- 
tion of  the  Founder  of  Christianity  by  appealing  to  Jesus  Him- 
self rather  than  to  the  churches.  It  is  impossible  to  treat  the 
Gospels  as  historical  evidence  in  this  matter,  and  yet  reduce  Jesus 
to  the  role  of  a  prophet — to  make  Him  out  to  be  simply  the 
pioneer,  of  faith,  or  the  first  interpreter  of  the  laws  of  the  Spirit. 
Some  distinguished  and  not  irreverent  critics  have  represented 
Jesus  Himself  as  undergoing  a  mental  change  in  the  later  part 
of  His  career,  so  that  His  ministry  is  cleaved  asunder  as  by  a 
momentous  revolution ;  by  His  Messianic  pretension  He  breaks 
away  from  the  prophetic  succession  and  leaps  upon  a  throne,  as 
Dr.  Martineau  2  described  the  transformation;  His  message  was 
at  the  beginning  one  of  self-abnegation,  but  in  the  end  it  was 
one  of  self-proclamation.  Renewed  and  persistent  study  of  the 
Gospels  convinces  one  that  this  representation  of  a  rupture  in 
the  movement  of  Christ's  ministry  and  inward  thought  is  based 
upon  inadequate  recognition  of  the  implications  of  His  earliest 
teaching  and  conduct ;  there  is,  in  fact,  the  most  vital  continuity 
and  the  profoundest  identity  between  the  earlier  and  later  phases 
of  His  work.  From  the  first  annunciation  of  the  Kingdom,  Jesus 
presented  Himself  not  merely  as  the  Interpreter  of  the  Law, 
but  as  its  Lord.  Not  only  did  He  boldly  treat  the  Rabbinic  tra- 
ditions as  provisional  or  mere  temporary  accommodations,  but 
with  unexampled  daring  He  put  aside  some  of  the  literal  obliga- 
tions of  the  Law  itself  by  showing  the  deeper  Spirit  that  lay 
beneath  the  letter.  Should  it  be  pointed  out  that  an  Isaiah  also 
could  show  a  like  freedom,  as  for  instance  when  he  said,  "  To 
what  purpose  is  the  multitude  of  your  sacrifices  unto  me?  saith 
the  Lord:  I  am  full  of  the  burnt-offerings  of  rams,  and  the  fat 
of  fed  beasts ;  and  I  delight  not  in  the  blood  of  bullocks  or  of 
lambs,  or  of  he-goats,"  etc.,  we  at  once  differentiate  between  the 
function  of  the  older  prophets  to  interpret  the  Divine  Order  of 

^  Address  to  the  Senior  Class  in  Divinity  College,  Cambridge,  1838. 
^Life,  vol.  ii.,  241. 


The  Breach  Between  Jesus  and  Judaism      125 

life,  and  the  fact  that  Jesus  asserted  Himself  to  be  the  supreme 
expression  of  the  Divine  Order  and  the  Revelation  of  a  final 
authority  in  all  matters  of  spiritual  life.  This  representation  of 
the  self-assertion  of  Jesus  is  based,  not  upon  a  few  selected 
proof-texts  of  uncertain  authority,  but  upon  the  whole  trend 
and  character  of  His  ministry  from  its  beginning  to  its  close. 
Whether  or  not  we  are  able  to  explain  the  uniqueness  of  Jesus ; 
whether  or  not  we  have  found  a  theory  that  can  combine  all  the 
phenomena  of  His  life,  and  set  forth  the  moral  and  metaphysical 
grounds  of  His  relationship  with  the  Heavenly  Father, — as  his- 
torical students  we  are  bound  to  be  true  to  the  facts,  though  they 
be  incomprehensible  to  us.  Our  special  undertaking  at  this  stage 
is  not,  however,  to  propound  theories  about  Him,  but  to  take 
full  cognizance  of  those  facts  of  His  ministry  which  brought 
about  His  rupture  with  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees.  It  may  be 
that  we  shall  finally  have  to  fall  back  upon  the  simple  assumption 
— which  cuts  the  Gordian  knot — that  in  the  Person  of  Jesus  God 
has  acted  in  a  unique  and  climactic  manner  for  the  consummation 
of  His  redemptive  self-revelation.  Meanwhile,  we  observe  that 
one  of  the  features  of  Christ's  ministry  which  shocked  the  clerical 
mind  of  that  age,  and  resulted  in  controversy,  conflict  and  trag- 
edy, was  the  assertion  by  Jesus  of  an  authority  which  seemed 
to  encroach  upon  the  prerogatives  of  Jehovah. 

3.  It  was  inevitable  that  the  appearance  of  a  great  Spiritual 
Authority,  such  as  Jesus  claimed  to  be,  should  divide  and  sift 
men.  While  refusing  to  assume  the  military  dictatorship  which 
the  popular  imagination  assigned  to  the  Christhood,  the  Lamb 
of  God  was  the  Spiritual  Warrior  of  humanity;  He  flung  down 
the  gage  of  battle  and  entered  into  conflict  with  all  the  evils  and 
sins  that  afflict  and  disorder  society.  He  made  it  plain  that  there 
is  no  compatibility  between  His  Kingdom  and  sin ;  the  sin  of  the 
world  was  the  enemy  of  God's  Sovereignty.  It  was  in  His 
special  treatment  of  this  problem  of  sin  that  there  were  disclosed 
the  serious  differences  between  Jesus  and  the  theologian?  and 
ecclesiastics  of  that  age.  His  whole  view  of  sin  in  its  origin 
in  the  evil  heart  and  rebellious  will,  and  in  the  scope  of  its 
malignant  opposition,  can  only  appear  in  the  completion  of  our 
study,  when  the  contrast  of  His  righteousness  with  the  world's 
enmity  to  God  has  been  looked  at  from  the  standpoint  of  the  Cross. 
The  note  of  His  teaching  which  distinguished  it  from  all  that 


126  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

had  gone  before  was  its  intense  inwardness;  while  Jesus  recog- 
nized as  fully  as  any  moralist  or  social  reformer  the  dire  objective 
ills  of  life,  His  emphasis  fell  almost  exclusively  upon  the  sub- 
jective and  central  motive  of  all  human  conduct.  With  Him  it 
was  largely  a  question  of  the  will ;  and  in  this  we  shall  find 
the  principle  of  His  differentiation  in  the  treatment  of  sinners. 
There  was  ever  a  strange  gentleness  in  His  dealing  with  the 
poor,  weak  victims  of  passion  and  lust,  and  a  contrary  sternness 
in  His  view  of  the  sins  of  the  mind,  such  as  pride  and  insincerity, 
so  palpably  manifest  in  the  attitude  of  the  Pharisees  towards  Him- 
self. When  we  take  the  whole  ministry  of  Jesus  as  a  complete 
act  of  God  in  human  history,  we  see  the  validity  of  the  apostolic 
view  of  His  work  as  the  definite  Divine  dealing  with  sin  as  an 
enemy  to  the  Kingdom,  and  something  that  had  to  be  faced  and 
overcome  by  the  champion  of  the  righteousness  and  trustworthy 
order  of  God  in  the  world.  We  mention  this  larger  view  in  order 
to  prevent  an  unbalanced  emphasis  upon  a  vital  but  fragmentary 
insight  which  must  now  be  set  forth.  At  the  beginning  of  His 
ministry,  Jesus  proclaimed  a  full  remission  (  acpeai?)  of  men's 
sins,  which  carried  with  it  the  impulse  to  start  anew.  The  for- 
giveness of  sins  was  one  of  the  first  conditions  essential  to  the 
establishment  of  God's  Sovereignty.  His  annunciation  of  this 
evangel  did  not  spring  from  light-heartedness,  or  from  a  senti- 
mental and  superficial  optimism  which  looked  upon  sin  as  nega- 
tive, shadowy  and  unreal.  Jesus  never  lacked  in  ethical  serious- 
ness. "  For  from  within,  out  of  the  heart  of  men,  evil  thoughts 
proceed — fornications,  thefts,  murders,  adulteries,  covetings, 
wickednesses,  deceit,  lasciviousness,  an  evil  eye,  railing,  pride, 
foolishness."  ^  Forgiveness,  therefore,  was  not  easy ;  although 
so  freely  proclaimed,  it  was  bestowed  at  great  cost.  It  is  the 
miracle  of  miracles !  The  scribes  were  so  far  right  in  their 
criticism  of  Christ's  evangel  that  forgiveness  must  be  the  pre- 
rogative of  God  only,  for  they  recognized  in  it  something  of  a 
mystery.  Even  Jesus  Himself  expressed  His  consciousness  that 
there  was  that  in  the  forgiveness  of  sin  which  made  it  more 
difficult  to  pronounce  absolution  than  to  speak  the  healing  word 
to  the  victim  of  palsy.^  The  demonstration  of  His  power  over 
physical  disease  left  the  scribes  unconvinced  of  His  authority  to 
forgive  sins ;  to  them  such  announcement  savoured  of  blasphemy. 
Such  a  message  of  acpeaii  carried  implications  of  authority 
*Mark  vii.  21,  22.  ^^ark  ii.  1-12. 


The  Breach  Between  Jesus  and  Judaism      127 

which  they  were  not  willing  to  ascribe  to  Jesus.  Herein  lay 
the  first  cause  of  alienation  between  Jesus  and  the  religious 
leaders  of  the  people;  and  their  criticism  of  His  assumption  of 
Divine  authority  must  evoke  sympathetic  response  in  all  minds 
that  are  prepossessed  by  a  purely  humanitarian  conception  of 
Jesus. 

4.  Our  next  step  must  be  an  attempt  to  explain  briefly  the 
nature  of  the  ceaseless  strife  between  Jesus  and  the  Pharisees. 
Dr.  Stalker  ^  has  rightly  reminded  us  that  the  Prince  of  Peace 
was  a  great  controversialist,  and  that  the  evidence  of  this  phase 
of  His  ministry  looms  far  more  largely  in  the  Gospels  than  is 
often  recognized.  The  characteristic  of  modern  thought  is  re- 
conciliation; we  are  seeking  for  a  new  synthesis  of  all  the  partial 
truths  and  broken  insights  of  men.  This  fact,  together  with  the 
hurtful  history  of  many  a  past  controversy  in  the  Christian 
Church,  has  naturally  resulted  in  widespread  deprecation  of 
theological  conflict.  But  the  note  of  authority  which  we  find  in 
Christ's  character  inevitably  expressed  itself  in  a  strong  antago- 
nism to  all  that  was  alien  to  His  way  of  thought.  The  "  Gentle 
Jesus  "  of  our  hymns  must  not  usurp  the  true  portrait  in  the 
Gospels  of  a  Perfect  Character.  There  is  always  a  capacity  for 
fierce  anger  in  a  perfectly  developed  soul.  Sympathy  must  never 
be  cultivated  at  the  expense  of  principle.  Dr.  Forsyth  ^  has  fitly 
said,  "  There  is  a  worse  thing  than  the  temper  and  abuse  of 
controversy,  and  that  is  the  mawkish  sweetness  and  maudlin 
piety  of  the  people  who  are  everybody's  brothers  and  can  stand 
up  to  none."  The  Kingdom  which  Christ  came  to  establish  was 
of  righteousness  and  peace,  but  not  peace  without  righteousness. 
When  one  recalls  the  genius  of  Pharisaic  Judaism  with  its  ever- 
lasting insistence  upon  external  ceremonies,  which  so  often  issued 
in  the  neglect  of  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law,  he  sees  that 
such  a  One  as  Jesus  could  not  possibly  escape  controversy  with 
its  representatives.  The  vital  and  spiritual  principle  of  true 
religion  was  at  stake :  therefore,  Jesus  did  not  hesitate  to  become 
the  aggressor  in  this  conflict;  and  disputes  arose  out  of  three 
definite  questions  of  traditional  religious  life — viz.  the  weekly 
fasting,  the  rites  of  purification,  and  the  rules  of  the  Sabbath. 
But  these  outward  forms  only  provided  the  terms  of  the  contro- 
versy ;  the  real  point  at  issue  was,  with  Jesus,  the  very  spirit  and 
^  Imago  Christi,  p.  285.  ^Rome,  Reform  and  Reaction,  p.  15. 


128  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

aim  of  man's  recognition  of  his  multiform  relations  to  God.  He 
saw  clearly,  more  clearly  than  His  adversaries,  the  infinite  value 
of  a  living,  free  spiritual  religion ;  and  to  this  ideal  Pharisaic 
conservatism  was  as  hostile,  in  the  view  of  Jesus,  as  the  very 
demons  who  usurped  possession  of  men's  reason  and  bodies. 
But  if  the  evil  which  confronted  Him  was  as  a  strong  man  armed, 
Jesus  entered  into  the  controversy  with  the  consciousness  that 
a  strength  was  inherent  in  Him  to  bind  the  strong  man  and 
spoil  his  house.  He  had  brought  a  new  wine  that  could  not  be 
contained  in  the  old,  dried,  cracked  skins  of  external  ceremonial. 
In  the  instance  of  the  dispute  about  purification — the  washing  of 
hands,  etc. — Jesus  saw  that  the  peril  lay  in  an  external  rite  which 
had  lost  its  symbolic  meanings.^  Again  in  the  matter  of  fasting, 
Rabbinic  tradition  had  supplemented  the  one  great  fast  of  the 
Day  of  Atonement,  inculcated  in  the  Torah,  by  weekly  abstinence 
on  Mondays  and  Thursdays ;  but  the  result  of  this  multiplication 
of  fasts  was  to  rob  them  of  their  spiritual  value,  to  minister 
to  religious  vanity  and  insincerity,  and  to  foster  the  radically 
false  idea  of  bartering  merit  with  God.  To  form  a  correct 
and  ample  conception  of  Jesus,  therefore,  we  must  reckon  with 
this  strong,  controversial  element  in  His  ministry,  and  acknowl- 
edge that  from  the  beginning  He  showed  a  wonderful  prescience 
concerning  His  real  foes,  and  took  up  an  uncompromising  atti- 
tude of  opposition  to  formalism,  while  in  the  course  of  the  con- 
flict He  evinced  marvellous  calmness,  certainty  and  authority. 

5.  The  diflferences  between  Jesus  and  contemporary  Judaism 
found  their  acutest  and  most  vehement  expression  in  the  par- 
ticular dispute  about  the  Sabbath-day.  The  Jewish  views  of  the 
Sabbath  are  so  well-known  that  it  is  needless  to  reiterate  them ; 
the  bewildering  thing  in  the  Gospels  is  that  Jesus  should  seem 
to  undermine  the  orthodox  Sabbatarian  ideal.  His  freedom  from 
conventional  restraints  may  easily  be  misunderstood  and  carica- 
tured. Let  it  be  accepted  as  a  certitude  that  while  Jesus  reso- 
lutely attacked  external  and  conventional  usages,  He  never  once 
thought  of  annulling  the  Sabbath  itself.  The  Sabbath  institution 
rested  upon  the  distinct  teaching  of  the  Torah,  and  Jesus  accepted 
it  as  a  part  of  the  Divine  economy  for  the  teaching  and  salvation 
of  men.  He  sought  to  detach  the  essential  from  the  accidental; 
He  waved   aside   Pharisaic   prejudices   concerning  it,  but  His 

*  Mark  vii.   1-23. 


The  Breach  Between  Jesus  and  Judaism      129 

synagogue  ministry  itself  is  a  refutation  of  the  idea  that  He 
abrogated  the  Divine  right  and  human  obhgation  expressed  in 
the  institution  itself.  At  first  Jesus  hoped  to  win  the  Pharisees 
to  the  acceptance  of  His  point  of  view;  and  in  His  justification 
of  His  disciples,  when  they  plucked  the  ears  of  corn  on  the 
Sabbath-day,  He  showed  that  He  was  possessed  of  a  new  dialec- 
tic, and  could  furnish  strong  and  cogent  arguments  in  defence 
of  His  own  views  and  conduct.  The  mind  of  Jesus  disclosed 
itself  as  able  to  penetrate  to  the  core  of  all  intricacies  and  seize 
upon  the  central  and  abiding  principle  or  general  notion  which 
had  expressed  itself  in  symbols  and  rites.  He  could  also  rapidly 
arrange  His  acquired  stores  of  Old  Testament  learning  and 
marshal  His  thoughts  in  an  ordered  and  convincing  manner. 
There  was  also  a  quality  of  supreme  daring  in  His  free  Spirit, 
although  at  no  point  did  He  give  place  to  license.  "  The  Sabbath 
was  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for  the  Sabbath:  so  that  the 
Son  of  Man  is  lord  even  of  the  Sabbath."  After  meditating 
upon  the  title,  "  Son  of  Man,"  I  cannot  apply  it  indiscriminately 
to  all  men ;  it  is  peculiar  to  Jesus,  because  of  His  unique  human- 
ity ;  it  breathes  His  Messianic  self-consciousness,  and  bespeaks  an 
authority  which  awes  the  spirits  of  men  into  surrender  to  Him. 
When  other  men  possess  the  energy,  decisiveness,  and  authority 
of  personality  combined  with  the  clear  spiritual  vision  and  philo- 
sophic grasp  of  general  principles,  together  with  an  ethic  both 
broad  and  exalted  as  that  of  Jesus,  they  may  claim  to  be  even 
lords  of  the  Sabbath;  in  the  meantime  let  us  acknowledge  that 
He  is  the  Son  of  Man,  and  worthy  to  be  called  "  our  Lord." 

6.  If  this  representation  of  the  history  be  correct,  then  the 
conflict  between  the  Pharisees  and  Jesus  arose  from  a  diametrical 
opposition  of  temper  and  spirit.  It  was  not  simply  that  they 
were  jealous  of  the  growing  influence  of  Jesus,  of  the  popularity 
won  by  His  healing  miracles;  it  was  rather  the  collision  of 
tempers,  which  could  find  no  point  for  reconciliation.  The 
system  of  Pharisaism  too  often  hardened  its  votaries  intj  an 
attitude  which  sacrificed  humanity  to  ritual — into  an  arid,  in- 
tellectual dogmatism  which  was  the  bondage  of  the  Spirit.  Jesus, 
however,  in  whom  we  find  elements  of  transcendental  authority 
was  essentially  humanitarian  in  His  outlook  and  practice,  and 
would  not  for  one  moment  tolerate  the  abandonment  of  the 
humble  pieties  and  domestic  duties  in  the  name  of  a  creed  or 


130  The  Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 

ritual.  The  culmination  of  such  a  controversy  could  not  be  de- 
layed very  long,  and  it  was  destined  to  cut  short  Christ's  syna- 
gogue ministry  and  to  make  it  advisable  for  Him  to  seek  a 
different  sphere  of  activity.  As  we  read  St.  Mark's  narrative  of 
the  healing  of  the  man  with  the  withered  hand,^  the  thought  is 
suggested  that  the  Pharisees  had  planned  and  prearranged  the 
scene  in  the  synagogue,  in  order  to  bring  matters  to  a  crisis  and 
make  Christ's  breach  with  Judaism  as  public  and  glaring  as 
possible.  It  was  such  a  challenge  as  Jesus  could  not  hesitate  to 
accept,  and,  with  characteristic  and  terrible  directness  which 
attests  His  intellectual  power.  He  threw  the  whole  controversy 
upon  the  Pharisees  by  His  stern  question,  "  Is  it  lawful  on  the 
Sabbath  day  to  do  good,  or  to  do  harm?  to  save  a  life,  or  to 
kill  ?  "  A  touch  of  imaginative  sympathy  recreates  the  scene, 
and  we  see  transacted  over  again  the  strange  duel,  and  feel 
the  thrill  of  overwhelming  emotion  in  Christ's  question.  It  was 
a  moment  of  stress  and  strain,  an  hour  of  storm,  a  tremendous 
battle  between  two  ideals  of  religion.  There  could  be  no  com- 
promise. Jesus  gave  up  the  hope  of  winning  His  opponents,  and 
turned  round  to  look  on  them  with  anger  and  grief  at  their 
invincible  hardness,  which  they  misnamed  religion.  The  miracu- 
lous restoration  of  the  man's  withered  hand  on  that  Sabbath-day 
brought  about  the  definite  rupture  of  Jesus  with  the  religious 
authorities  in  Galilee.  "  This  event,  according  to  Mark,  was  the 
parting  of  the  ways.  The  religious  leaders  decide  to  get  rid  of 
Jesus  by  the  help  of  the  Herodian  government;  while  Jesus,  on 
the  other  hand,  begins  to  constitute  His  followers  into  an  organi- 
zation which  was  destined  to  develop  into  the  Christian  Church. 
He  no  longer  preaches  in  the  synagogues,  save  once  (and  that 
unsuccessfully)  at  His  own  home  at  Nazareth,  and  for  the  re- 
mainder of  His  ministry  His  main  efforts  are  directed  toward 
preparing  His  disciples  for  the  trials  that  are  in  store  for  Him 
and  them."  ^ 

7.  The  breach  between  Jesus  and  the  Pharisees  was  widened 
by  His  disregard  of  conventional  class  distinctions.  This  strange 
Messiah  shocked  all  His  narrow-minded  contemporaries  by  the 
social  abandon  He  exhibited;  they  could  not  understand  such 
pity  and  love.     In  His  eyes  there  shone  an  appealing  grace  which 

*Mark  iii.  1-6. 

*  Professor  Burkett,  The  Gospel  History  and  its  Transmission,  p.  69. 


The  Breach  Between  Jesus  and  Judaism      131 

strangely  moved  the  hearts  of  all  who  iwere  ostracized  by  the  re- 
spectable classes.  He  showed  no  scorn  or  hauteur  toward  the 
vicious,  the  vagrants,  and  the  diseased;  He  came  to  seek  and 
save.  The  classic  instance  of  His  bonhomie  and  bohemian 
habits  is  that  of  the  farewell  feast  which  followed  the  call  of 
Matthew.^  Seeing  that  His  Synagogue  Mission  must  be  termi- 
nated, Jesus  deliberately  set  Himself  to  win  the  excommunicated. 
Such  companionship  caused  no  embarrassment  in  Jesus ;  but  the 
Pharisees  were  shocked  by  this  further  outrage  upon  conven- 
tional ideas  of  life ;  they  failed  to  understand  His  religion  of 
Perfect  Love;  there  was  engendered  in  their  minds,  as  they 
looked  on,  a  sour  suspicion,  and  they  stigmatized  Him  as  "  the 
friend  of  publicans  and  sinners."  He  did  not  blush  at  being 
"  caught "  in  the  company  of  fallen  men  and  women,  but  uttered 
the  apologia  pro  vita  sua,  "  They  that  are  whole  have  no  need  of 
a  physician,  but  they  that  are  sick:  I  came  not  to  call  the  right- 
eous, but  sinners."  When  He  heard  that  His  followers  were 
upbraided  for  not  observing  the  fasts,  He  said  that  as  the  Bride- 
groom was  with  them,  they  could  not  mourn.  He  looked  upon 
His  critics  and  foes,  as  one  might  look  upon  naughty,  quarrelsome 
children  who  were  at  cross-purposes,  discontented  with  their 
games  of  mock  funerals,  and  unwilling  to  join  in  play  at  wed- 
dings. Of  John  they  said  "  he  hath  a  devil !  "  Of  Jesus,  "  Be- 
hold !  a  glutton  and  a  wine-bibber !  "  The  common  people,  how- 
ever, felt  His  goodness;  and  although  there  was  naught  of 
boisterous  mirth  in  His  social,  genial  temper,  they  perceived  His 
tenderness  for  all  weak  things.  At  last  this  popularity  forced 
Him  to  make  retreats  into  solitude,  and  compelled  Him  to  seek 
privacy  by  wandering  far  from  Galilee.^ 

*  Mark  ii.  13-17 ;  Matt.  ix.  9-13. 

^  Luke  iv.  42 ;  V.  I ;  viii.  40 ;  Mark  i.  37. 


BOOK  III 
THE  SCHOOL  OF  JESUS 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  NEW  APOSTOLATE 

I.  Renan's  Life  of  Jesus  was  a  triumph  of  literary  art,  and 
at  the  same  time  a  pathetic  disclosure  of  the  limitations  of  natural 
genius  when  it  attempts  to  treat  of  the  Realm  of  the  Spirit. 
Romanticism  failed  to  plumb  the  spiritual  depths  of  the  New 
Testament.  There  are  qualifications  other  than  those  possessed 
by  the  literary  artist,  requisite  even  for  a  partial  understand- 
ing of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  However  much  it  may  savour  of  pre- 
sumption to  adopt  the  Pauline  principle  that  spiritual  things  must 
be  spiritually  discerned,  there  is  true  philosophy  in  the  affirmation, 
"  Now  the  natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of 
God :  for  they  are  foolishness  unto  him ;  and  he  cannot  know 
them,  because  they  are  spiritually  judged."  ^  The  Galilean  peas- 
ant of  the  French  litterateur's  fancy — dreamy,  poetic  and  un- 
practical, with  a  fine  genius  for  religion,  and  an  intellectual  vein 
which  was  exhausted  in  the  invention  of  idyllic  parables  as  He 
walked  by  the  lake — may  be  pleasing  to  the  imagination  of  the 
literary  mind;  but  such  a  picture  has  little  correspondence  with 
the  historic  facts  of  the  four  Gospels.  A  picturesque  present- 
ment of  the  Nazarene  Carpenter  as  a  moral  and  social  re- 
former, or  as  a  politico-religious  revolutionist,  does  not  ade- 
quately reflect  the  record  of  facts.  Equally  deficient  in  propor- 
tion and  symmetry  is  the  recent  humanitarian  view  of  Jesus  which 
restricts  His  operation  to  that  of  spiritual  exegesis.  We  have  now 
reached  a  point  when  we  must  recognize  fully  the  supreme  place 
of  Jesus  in  the  role  of  prophecy  and  interpretation  of  the  laws  of 
the  Spirit,  and  we  should  do  Him  grave  injustice  did  we  make  no 
differentiation  between  Him  and  other  religion-founders.  Jesus 
demands  a  category  by  Himself;  for,  while  He  delighted  to 
identify  Himself  with  all  mankind,  He  claimed  both  implicitly 
and  explicitly  to  be  unique  and  transcendent.  He  was  conscious 
of  being  something  more  than  a  great  Teacher,  or  the  pioneer  of 
spiritual  discovery ;  He  was  a  great  actor  in  the  drama  of  human 
history.    Even  though  we  can  formulate  no  theory  of  His  person 

^  I  Cor.  ii.  14. 
135 


136  The  School  of  Jesus 

that  will  cover  all  the  facts,  it  is  at  least  necessary  that  we  should 
acknowledge  both  the  consciousness  of  the  Primitive  Church  of 
the  Lord's  place  in  her  experience  and  the  character  of  His  own 
self-consciousness.  Of  the  modern  Humanitarian  view  of  Jesus, 
it  must  be  said  that  the  cloud  still  rests  upon  the  sanctuary ;  its 
advocates  have  not  beheld  the  full  reality.  Just  as  in  Africa 
there  is  a  high  mountain  almost  always  covered  by  mist,  so  that 
travellers  come  near  without  once  discerning  its  magnitude, 
so  have  some  scholars  approached  the  historical  Person  of  the 
Gospels  without  perceiving  His  vastness.  Sometimes  the  lifting 
of  the  mist  for  a  brief  interval  has  only  resulted  in  filling  the 
mind  of  the  beholder  with  doubt,  and  fear  of  optical  illusion ;  and 
similarly,  if  one  strives  to  communicate  one's  glimpses  of  the 
transcendent  Christ  to  those  intellectualists  who  have  never  seen 
the  lifting  of  the  cloud,  one  will  be  adjudged  the  victim  of  hallu- 
cination. Nevertheless,  "  That  which  was  from  the  beginning, 
that  which  we  have  heard,  that  which  we  have  seen  with  our 
eyes,  that  which  we  beheld,  and  our  hands  handled,  concerning  the 
Word  of  Life  .  .  .  that  which  we  have  seen  and  heard  declare 
we  unto  you  also."  ^ 

2.  In  the  previous  chapters,  some  insight  has  been  gained 
into  the  august  Spirituality  of  Jesus'  conception  of  the  Reign  of 
God;  now  it  devolves  upon  us  to  show  how  He  applied  all  the 
powers  of  His  anointed  Manhood  to  give  this  Empire  of  the 
Mind  an  objective,  organized  embodiment  on  earth.  The  Gospels 
disclose  not  only  the  reveries  of  a  poetic  religious  genius,  but 
also  the  statesmanship  of  a  Kingdom-founder.  Jesus  did  not 
adopt  the  method  of  philosophers  for  the  promulgation  of  a  new 
system;  He  wrote  no  dream  of  an  ideal  republic;  He  followed 
no  lines  laid  down  by  others ;  yet,  that  He  had  a  clearly  con- 
ceived plan  of  action,  and  sought  to  carry  it  out  as  opportunity 
afforded,  there  can  be  little  doubt.  Vast  though  His  conceptions 
and  projects  were,  there  was  neither  diffuseness  in  His  expres- 
sions nor  vagueness  in  His  action  ;  the  thunder-clap  and  lightning- 
flash  of  Revelation  had  not  left  His  mind  blinded  and  huddled 
in  ecstatic  helplessness.  As  soon  as  He  emerged  from  the 
obscurity  of  private  life.  He  struck  out  the  definite  lines  upon 
which  He  had  resolved  to  execute  His  mission.  Although  He 
belonged  to  the  narrowest  and  proudest  of  nationalities,  Jesus 
laid  His  hand  upon  the  universal  principles  implicit  in  the  theo- 

*  I  John  i.  1-4. 


The  New  Apostolate  137 

cratic  ideal,  and  set  them  forth  as  the  governing  ideas  of  a  univer- 
sal society  in  which  men  should  be  bound — not  by  blood-ties  but 
by  spiritual  affinities.  Although  many  centuries  have  passed  since 
He  called  His  first  disciples,  the  true  aim  of  Jesus  has  scarcely 
dawned  upon  the  popular  intelligence,  and  even  the  churches 
which  call  themselves  by  His  name  see  but  dimly  the  goal  He 
set  before  them.  While  the  ideal  of  Jesus  was  transcendent,  it 
was  rooted  in  the  common  earth ;  His  Messiahship  relates  to  the 
aeon  that  shall  succeed  this,  yet  it  also  bears  directly  upon  the 
present  conditions  of  life.  The  eschatology  of  Jesus  will  come 
under  our  notice  at  a  later  stage ;  here  we  may  consider  the 
fellowship  He  designed  to  constitute  in  this  present  aeon, —  a 
koinonia  based  upon  the  consciousness  that  God  Himself  lives 
in  community  with  men  as  the  Heavenly  Father.  Jesus  sought 
to  beget  in  men's  minds  a  realization  of  Divine  filialty,  and  to 
associate  us  in  a  brotherhood  wherein  love  and  self-sacrifice  shall 
prevail  over  all  the  selfish  instincts  of  natural  life.  This  was 
Christ's  interpretation  of  the  Reign  of  God  on  earth ;  this  was  the 
movement  He  initiated ;  it  was  the  dominant  aim  of  His  life,  and 
today  we  recognize  it  as  identical  with  the  innermost,  Divine 
purpose  of  human  History. 

3.  Jesus  deliberately  rejected  the  popular  and  p 'evailing  no- 
tions of  the  Messianic  office,  and  even  the  prophetic  dreams  of 
temporal  power  and  glory  which  He  read  in  the  inspired  litera- 
ture of  His  race;  He  looked  upon  the  allurements  of  world-rule 
and  the  specious  suggestions  springing  from  the  people  as  temp- 
tations full  of  Satanic  malignancy.  It  required  indomitable 
courage  to  refuse  all  the  popular  expectations  of  the  age — a 
courage  only  less  remarkable  than  the  exquisite  wisdom  needed 
for  the  choice  of  the  unexpected  yet  right  means  to  His  exalted 
ends.  Facile,  indeed,  would  have  been  an  errant  choice,  and  mere 
cleverness  would  have  stumbled  blindly  amid  the  alternatives 
proffered;  but  in  faith  Jesus  chose  the  true  way  of  Jehovah's 
Suffering  Servant — of  renunciation  and  of  patient  endurance. 
But  while  as  the  Author  of  faith  He  trod  the  wine-press  alone. 
His  task  was  not  simply  that  of  His  personal  salvation ;  for,  had 
He  walked  the  sorrowful  way  without  followers.  He  could  not 
have  founded  the  Kingdom;  His  faith  in  the  future  was  justified 
by  the  fire-kindling  character  of  the  love  He  cast  upon  the  earth ; 
His  certainty  of  success  lay  in  the  attraction  He  wielded  in 


138  The  School  of  Jesus 

alluring  others  into  imitation  of  Himself.  One  less  divinely  wise 
would  have  sought  adherents  first  of  all  from  the  wealthy  and 
educated  classes — from  the  aristocratic  priesthood  and  the  in- 
fluential Pharisees.  But  had  Jesus  aimed  at  this,  His  movement 
would  have  been  throttled  by  pedantry  and  prejudice.  There 
was  marvellous  penetration  needed  to  discover  at  the  beginning 
that  God  uses  the  weak  things  of  the  world  to  confound  the 
mighty ;  even  after  the  lapse  of  centuries  our  own  glimpses  of 
the  Divine  reason  of  this  method  are  seldom  sustained  by  a 
correspondent  faith  in  practice.  The  election  Jesus  made  of 
lowly,  labouring  men,  who,  though  possessing  but  little  learning, 
were  yet  zealous  and  capable  of  noble  enthusiasm,  proves  that  to- 
gether with  an  unparalleled  excellence  of  judgement  He  cher- 
ished a  temper  uniquely  free  from  clogging  earthliness.  The 
whole  method  adopted  by  Jesus  was  characterized  by  a  startling 
originality.  We  do  not  accept  the  estimate  of  nationalistic 
thinkers  that  the  "  intellectual  grasp  "  of  Jesus  was  essentially 
parochial  and  limited  to  His  own  age ;  rather  do  we  believe  that 
His  vision  embraced  the  unevolved  processes  of  the  widening 
range  of  human  life.  He  planted  the  germs  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God,  and  He  chose  certain  men  to  be  His  agents  in  this  spiritual 
husbandry.  He  projected  the  evolution  of  a  higher  type  of 
humanity — an  evolution  which,  from  the  plane  of  present  achieve- 
ment, will  appear  as  revolution.  Having  enunciated  His  Gospel 
of  the  Kingdom  in  a  general  way.  He  next  drew  to  Himself  an 
inner  circle  of  disciples,  whom  He  could  personally  train  and 
charge  with  His  own  splendid  passion  of  idealism  and  love.  Each 
step  in  the  execution  of  His  plan  was  marked  with  a  wisdom 
which  recognized  the  necessity  for  immediate  reticence,  and  for 
the  graduated  instruction  of  His  chosen  pupils. 

4.  Various  and  discrepant  are  the  narratives  that  relate  how 
Jesus  called  His  disciples,  and  the  seeming  contradictions  can  be 
marshalled  with  such  imposing  force  that  the  very  credibility  of 
the  Gospels  seems  shaken.  St.  John  represents  Jesus  as  having 
won  the  adherence  of  Andrew,  Simon,  the  unnamed  disciple — 
perhaps  John,  Philip  and  Nathanael — before  He  returned  from 
His  baptism  into  Galilee.  St.  Matthew  however,  reports,  as 
though  it  was  the  first  meeting,  that  while  Jesus  walked  by  the 
Galilean  lake.  He  saw  Andrew  and  Simon,  and  bade  them  follow 
Him;  that  the  sons  of  Zebedee  also  were  similarly  called.     St. 


The  New  Apostolate  139 

Luke  gives  the  call  of  Peter  in  a  different  connection.  Having 
used  the  boat  of  Peter  and  Andrew  for  his  rostrum,  Jesus  caused 
the  brothers  to  launch  out  and  let  down  their  nets;  the  marvellous 
draught  of  fishes  surprised  Simon  into  a  confession  of  sin,  and 
the  response  of  the  Master  was  a  call  to  discipleship.  Another 
incident  is  the  call  of  Levi,  the  son  of  Alphaeus,  from  the  cus- 
tom house;  it  remains,  however,  an  unsettled  question  whether 
this  man  ought  to  be  identified  with  Matthew,  whose  call  is  related 
in  the  First  Gospel.  Again,  how  difficult  it  is  to  bring  anything 
like  harmony  into  the  three  catalogues  of  the  Twelve  Disciples ! 
Nathanael  has  to  be  identified  with  Bartholomew,  Matthew  with 
Levi,  James  (the  son)  of  Alphaeus  with  James  the  Less,  while 
Judas  of  James  must  be  one  and  the  same  with  the  disciple  vari- 
ously named  Lebbaeus  and  Thaddaeus,  who  must  be  distinguished 
from  Judas  Iscariot.  Some  readers  treat  the  different  narratives 
as  varying  traditions  of  one  call ;  but  it  is  quite  reasonable  to 
imagine  that  the  disciples  were  gradually  initiated  into  the  new 
life,  and  to  suppose  that  the  call  was  repeated  at  succeeding  stages 
of  their  instruction.  Whatever  uncertainty  may  exist  about  this 
matter,  it  is  plain  that  Jesus  could  not  be  satisfied  by  a  promiscu- 
ous evangelism,  but  that  He  sought  specially  qualified  pupils  who 
might  be  trained  for  future  work.  The  lists  of  names  differ, 
but  it  is  possible  that  some  of  the  less  distinguished  of  the  Twelve 
might  be  supplanted  in  popular  traditions  by  some  of  the  more 
prominent  members  of  the  Seventy  Peraean  evangelists.  The 
intimate  trio — Peter,  James  and  John — are  clearly  drawn  in  the 
Gospels ;  but  the  outer  circle  of  the  Twelve  is  portrayed  much 
less  vividly.  They  all  proved  vacillating  and  slow  pupils,  and 
their  loyalty  to  Jesus  was  much  marred  by  coarse  ambitions. 
Only  very  gradually  could  their  gross  expectations  be  trans- 
muted into  an  intelligent  appreciation  of  their  Master's  aims. 
Judas  Iscariot  must  have  exhibited  a  potentiality  of  goodness 
at  the  beginning;  his  later  career  can  only  be  explained  as  a 
type  of  moral  degeneration.  Matthew  not  only  gave  Jesus  an 
opportunity  of  meeting  the  ostracized  classes  (publicans  and 
sinners),  but  he  is  credited  with  having  made  the  first  notes  of 
the  Lord's  logia.  Of  Andrew,  Philip  and  Thomas  we  know 
but  little,  and  of  others,  variously  named,  we  know  nothing; 
and  then  of  that  wider  circle  who  were  manifestly  responsive  to 
Christ's  teaching  and  prepared  to  go  forth  as  missioners  of  the 
Kingdom,  we  know  not  even  their  names. 


140  The  School  of  Jesus 

5.  Our  frequent  indiscriminate  use  of  the  term  "  disciple " 
confuses  the  popular  perception  of  the  distinction  which  Jesus 
Himself  made  between  the  Twelve  and  ordinary  believers.  As 
the  name  of  "  apostles  "  came  to  be  appropriated  by  the  Twelve, 
the  word  disciple  began  to  lose  some  of  its  definiteness  and 
exclusiveness ;  and  today  it  is  vain  to  seek  a  pedantic  change 
of  common  usage.  However,  in  order  to  understand  the  method 
of  Jesus  and  the  beginnings  of  the  Christian  Church,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  take  account  of  the  distinct  office  and  mode  of  life  to 
which  the  Twelve  were  chosen.  The  Twelve  were  called  to  be 
strict  imitators  of  the  poverty  of  Jesus,  and  they  were  com- 
manded to  abandon  their  ordinary  avocations — first  to  learn  of 
Jesus,  then  to  propagate  His  Gospel.  Whether  persons  are 
chosen  and  called  to  follow  a  similar  mode  of  life  now,  may  be 
subsequently  considered ;  here  we  may  note  that  it  was  not  every 
man  that  was  deemed  capable  of  following  the  way  of  Jesus ;  the 
Master  Himself  understood  the  inherent  distinctions  in  men's  dis- 
positions, and  plainly  demanded  a  resolute  and  courageous  tem- 
per in  those  who  were  to  attempt  the  hard  tasks  of  discipleship. 
There  was  no  hindrance  in  being  uncultured,  or  in  lacking 
rank  or  wealth ;  the  absolutely  essential  qualification  was  a  po- 
tentiality of  moral  sacrifice.  St.  Paul  was  able  to  write  of  five 
hundred  believers  who  had  known  the  Lord  in  the  days  of  His 
flesh ;  but  Jesus  chose  only  twelve  disciples.  There  would  have 
been  an  element  of  absurdity  in  the  adoption  of  the  title  of 
"  followers  "  by  men  who  still  pursued  their  worldly  avocations 
and  cherished  their  legitimate  ambitions  of  earthly  success.  The 
chief  aim  of  Jesus  was  to  win  the  allegiance  of  a  band  of  men  who 
would  heroically  follow  Him  and  imitate  His  absolute  renuncia- 
\--(ion  of  the  world.  The  Master  is  not  to  be  conceived  of  as 
a  philosopher  like  unto  Socrates ;  He  never  adopted  the  role 
of  a  rabbi,  whose  task  was  simply  to  teach  impersonal  doctrines  of 
religion.  The  men  He  called  were  designated  to  be  pillars  of  a 
spiritual  community — apostles  of  Light  to  the  whole  world ;  they 
were  not  a  monastic  body  separated  from  the  race,  but  they  were 
charged  by  Jesus  to  leaven  the  whole  community  of  mankind 
throughout  the  world.  From  the  beginning  of  His  mission, 
there  were  gradations  and  nuances  in  believers'  approximations 
to  the  disciple-ideal  set  up  by  Jesus.  The  most  rudimentary  belief 
in  Jesus  imparted  a  fine  moral  energy  to  the  character ;  a  faith  no 
greater  than  a  grain  of  mustard-seed  produced  incalculable  ethi- 


The  New  Apostolate  141 

cal  consequences ;  still  it  must  be  remembered  that,  from  the  few 
disciples  chosen  by  the  Lord  to  be  the  official  ministers  of  the  new 
Kingdom,  there  was  demanded  a  complete  renunciation  of  ordi- 
nary pursuits — of  the  attractions  and  prizes  of  this  present  life. 
They  were  not  sworn  to  celibacy  or  asceticism,  but  they  were  set 
apart  for  the  vocation  of  apostles  and  were  directed  to  live  by 
faith  in  God  and  to  bear  themselves  with  gentleness  and  forbear- 
ance toward  men.  Unless  this  special  character  of  the  disciple 
be  remembered,  the  Gospels  must  seem  to  present  an  exaggerated 
moral  ideal,  and  all  attempts  to  harmonize  it  with  modern  Chris- 
tianity will  savour  of  unreality.  The  utmost  frankness  is  de- 
manded of  us,  in  order  to  clear  the  air  of  cant  and  to  avoid  the 
pitfalls  of  hypocrisy :  all  men  are  not  chosen  to  be  apostles  and  to 
go  forth  in  poverty  to  evangelize  the  world;  if  there  were  many 
called,  only  a  few  were  chosen.  Had  it  been  otherwise,  and  had 
the  call  to  this  life  of  utter  renunciation  of  all  external  posses- 
sions and  aggrandizement  been  made  universal,  then  we  should 
have  been  forced  to  acknowledge  that  Jesus  was  the  supreme 
anarchist  of  history.  The  new  apostolate  formed  by  Jesus 
was  necessarily  narrow  and  somewhat  exclusive,  so  that  the 
Twelve  should  become  mediators  of  a  universal  Gospel.  Such 
rigorous  discipleship  was  a  means  to  an  end ;  and  that  end  was 
the  constitution  of  a  theocratic  community  which  should  per- 
meate and  intersphere  all  the  communities  and  nations  of  the 
world. 

6.  Appeals  to  the  Gospels  will,  we  think,  confirm  this  general 
statement  of  the  nature  and  purpose  of  Christ's  institution  of  dis- 
cipleship. The  abruptness  and  imperiousness  of  the  special 
"  calls  "  recorded,  may  be  rather  the  characteristic  of  the  brief 
accounts  than  of  the  incidents  themselves,  although  it  would 
be  quite  a  mistake  to  explain  away  all  semblance  of  command 
in  the  manner  and  tone  of  Jesus.  In  the  various  cases  recorded, 
we  may  justly  imagine  a  course  of  preliminary  instruction  to 
have  been  given  by  Jesus ;  for  example,  the  two  disciples  trans- 
ferred from  the  Baptist's  school  listened  to  the  Master's  doc- 
trine a  considerable  time  before  they  were  called  upon  to  take 
final  leave  of  their  mundane  occupations.  The  period  of  pre- 
liminary training  may  have  differed  in  various  cases ;  but  in 
every  one  of  the  Twelve,  notwithstanding  the  failure  of  Judas, 
Jesus  may  be  supposed  to  have  made  proof  of  the  pupil's  temper 


142  The  School  of  Jesus 

and  spirit  before  He  made  His  final  imperious  appeal,  "  Follow 
me."  In  the  case  of  the  Galilean  fishermen  the  call  was  given  at 
the  moment  when  their  craft  appeared  most  profitable ;  yet  at  the 
bidding  of  Jesus,  they  left  all  and  followed  Him.  Their  obedi- 
ence demonstrated  the  existence,  in  those  simple  and  rough  men, 
of  a  moral  susceptibility  to  the  grand  and  heroic  ideal  of  Jesus. 
To  one  rash  aspirant  to  the  difficult  office  of  discipleship  Jesus 
uttered  the  forbidding  words,  "  The  foxes  have  holes,  and  the 
birds  of  the  heaven  have  nests :  but  the  Son  of  Man  hath  not  where 
to  lay  His  head."  Should  the  occasion  arise,  then  allegiance  to 
the  Lord  must  take  precedence  even  of  family  duties ;  for  spiritual 
changes  bring  new  bonds  of  affinity  which  go  deeper  than  rela- 
tionships of  flesh  and  blood !  ^  The  Great  Teacher  was  explicit 
about  the  hardness  of  the  disciple's  life ;  and  He  refused  to 
tolerate  the  temper  that  vacillates :  a  hesitating,  uncertain,  doubt- 
ing man  is  no  more  qualified  than  is  the  ploughman  who  looks 
back  fitted  for  his  task  of  making  the  furrow  straight.  Hence, 
it  was  a  peremptory  condition  of  the  apostolate  that  each  new 
member  should  renounce,  for  the  sake  of  Jesus,  everything  that 
the  world  esteems  as  gain.  Behind  such  a  call  for  moral  hero- 
ism we  discern  our  Lord's  full  trust  both  in  God  and  man; 
our  life  depends  ultimately  upon  the  Father's  will;  the  disciple 
might,  therefore,  cast  himself  without  anxiety  upon  the  hospitality 
of  the  people  to  whom  he  carried  the  Word  of  Truth.  Jesus 
clearly  foretold  that  His  Apostles  would  be  cruelly  persecuted; 
still  the  world's  hostility  was  provoked,  not  by  the  disciple's 
poverty,  but  by  his  uncongenial  message. 

7.  One  of  the  important  special  aims  of  the  Master's  minis- 
try was  to  instruct  and  discipline  the  characters  of  those  whom 
He  chose  to  propagate  the  Reign  of  God;  and  the  ordination  of 
the  Twelve  for  the  new  apostolate  constituted  a  momentous 
crisis  in  the  development  of  His  plan.  St.  Luke  represents  Jesus 
Himself  as  fully  cognizant  of  the  epoch-making  influence  of  His 
final  choice  of  the  Twelve,  recording  how  He  prepared  for  this 
election  by  spending  the  previous  night  on  some  mountain  in 
prayer.  Hitherto  Jesus  had  only  issued  incidental  invitations  for 
excursions  of  varying  duration,  although  in  most  cases  His  ap- 
peal for  the  companionship  of  these  men  fell  upon  their  hearts 
with  the  force  of  command.  The  very  phrase  now  used  by  St. 
*  Luke  ix.  57-62 ;  Mark  iii.  32-35. 


The  New  Apostolate  143 

Luke  is  significant  of  the  preeminent  importance  of  a  step  which 
required  a  preparatory  night  of  vigil :  "  He  continued  all  night  in 
the  prayer  of  God."  {rff  Trpoffsvxrj  rov  Qeov.)  The  interior 
truth  needed  investiture  in  outward  organization ;  the  outward 
was  to  be  the  symbol  of  the  Spirit  and  idea.  The  choosing  of 
the  Twelve  is  the  first  step  in  Christ's  programme,  the  carrying 
out  of  which  was  designed  to  give  form  and  body  to  the  hidden 
community  of  Light.  The  Reign  of  God  must  be  made  mani- 
fest in  the  external  order,  and  the  Truth  must  be  mediated  for  the 
popular  mind.  No  touch  of  undue  haste  or  premature  action 
characterized  His  ministry;  He  moved  forward  with  the  majestic 
certainty  of  one  who  was  sure  of  the  Will  of  the  Eternal.  The 
reference  made  by  the  Evangelist  to  His  praying  all  through 
the  night  sheds  a  clear  light  upon  the  continual  personal  practice 
of  religion  by  the  Lord  Jesus.  "  And  when  it  was  day,  He  sum- 
moned His  disciples  " — the  large  circle  of  well-disposed  learners 
who  had  come  out  to  Him — thus  using  the  term  "  disciples  "  in 
the  laxer  way,  "  and  of  them  He  elected  twelve,  whom  He  also 
named  apostles."  The  designation  of  "  apostles  "  may  have  been 
given  at  a  later  time;  the  conjunction  (>ioci),  "  marks  the  naming 
as  a  separate  act  from  the  election."  Jesus  then  descended  from 
the  summit  to  some  level  place,  where  He  found  a  great  crowd 
of  learners  and  a  multitude  of  people  awaiting  Him.  St.  Luke 
clearly  distinguishes  three  groups — the  Twelve  who  were  or- 
dained to  be  apostles,  the  larger  outside  circle  of  believers  who 
loved  to  receive  His  instruction,  and  an  interested,  curious  multi- 
tude, eager  both  to  see  and  hear. 

8.  This  distinction  between  disciples  and  other  hearers  was 
first  made  by  Jesus  Himself:  "and  when  He  was  alone,  they 
that  were  about  Him  with  the  twelve  asked  of  Him  the  parables : 
and  He  said  unto  them.  Unto  you  is  given  the  mystery  of  the  king- 
dom of  God ;  but  unto  them  that  are  without,  all  things  are  done 
in  parables :  that  seeing  they  may  see,  and  not  perceive,"  etc.  In 
response  to  the  inquiry  of  the  young  man  about  the  true  religious 
life,  Jesus  simply  demanded  that  he  should  keep  the  command- 
ments; but  when  urged  further  by  the  confession  that  from  his 
youth  he  had  kept  these,  Jesus  enunciated  the  way  of  the  perfect 
life :  "  Sell  all  that  thou  hast  and  give  to  the  poor,  and  come  and 
follow  Me."  That  was  the  highest  call  to  absolute  renunciation ; 
but,  be  it  remembered,  Jesus  never  thought  of  summoning  every 


144  The  School  of  Jesus 

passer-by  to  follow  this  "  way."  Count  Tolstoy  in  spite  of  his 
grand  simplicity  and  magnanimity,  errs  in  thai  he  treats  this 
"  call "  as  universally  applicable.  But  we  are  not  all  qualified  to 
be  apostles,  any  more  than  all  are  inspired  to  be  poets;  most 
men  will  confess  that  they  have  neither  the  strength  nor  the 
courage  to  enter  upon  such  absolute  self-denial.  The  Master 
Himself  warned  His  friends  against  any  rash,  inconsiderate 
abandonment  of  the  prizes  of  the  world;  everyone  should  sit 
down  and  count  the  cost  before  he  begins  to  build  on  this  plan. 
Jesus  never  aimed  at  pulling  down  Caesar's  throne  or  at  banish- 
ing the  institutions  of  civilized  life — of  law,  literature,  art  and 
government;  He  plainly  said,  "Render  unto  Caesar  the  things 
that  are  Caesar's  and  unto  God  the  things  which  are  God's." 
Under  Divine  Providence,  a  great  civilization  has  grown  up  in 
our  world,  and  in  it  is  mixed  much  of  good  and  much  of  evil. 
This  civilization  has  assimilated  a  great  deal  of  the  idealism  of 
Christianity,  and  the  attitude  of  the  Church  toward  it  cannot  be 
one  of  blank  anarchism.  In  our  midst  are  men  endowed  with 
great  commercial  abilities,  who  easily  acquire  wealth.  Now  while 
Jesus  uttered  many  grave  warnings  about  the  danger  of  riches, 
and  the  difficulty  a  rich  man  finds  in  entering  the  Kingdom  of 
God,  He  did  not  command  that  every  rich  man  should  make 
himself  poor,  any  more  than  He  taught  His  disciples  to  court 
persecution.  On  the  other  hand,  Jesus  did  actually  call  certain 
men  to  a  life  of  utter  renunciation;  the  Twelve  were  so  called: 
the  obligation  of  poverty  was  laid  upon  St.  Francis;  and  those 
who  really  obeyed  became  the  salt  of  the  earth — the  Light  of  the 
World.  There  is,  however,  a  universal  call  that  all  men  should 
destroy  self-will  by  spiritual  surrender  to  the  Reign  of  God 
in  their  inmost  hearts,  and  that  amid  all  outward  conditions  the 
One  spirit  and  temper  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  should  be  culti- 
vated by  men  everywhere. 

9.  The  great  dominating  motive  of  the  mission  of  Jesus  was 
to  make  the  Reign  of  God  a  reality  among  men;  and  He  early 
saw  that  such  a  project  could  be  accomplished  only  through  the 
mediation  of  an  organic  community.  The  dream  of  a  mystical, 
invisible  church,  be  it  never  so  beautiful,  is  totally  inadequate; 
if  the  Kingdom  of  God  was  to  become  something  more  than  a 
cult  of  theosophy,  it  had  to  be  translated  into  actual  relationships 
and  visible  institutions.     Since  our  spirits  are  clothed  with  flesh, 


The  New  Apostolate  145 

mind  must  communicate  with  mind  through  the  symbolism  of 
speech  and  the  sacraments  of  action.  A  true  theocracy  must  be 
clothed  in  an  external  order;  and  it  must  develop,  just  as  any 
other  organism,  according  to  the  laws  of  life  in  material  and 
spiritual  environment;  although  it  will  be  fed  from  an  invisible 
Divine  Fountain.  Jesus  possessed  that  practical  wisdom  which 
the  old  Chinese  philosopher,  Lao-Tsze,  had  lacked — of  statesman- 
ship to  form  a  society  upon  which  He  could  stamp  His  ideal. 
The  bond  of  this  society  was  love  to  Himself,  and  from  those  per- 
sons who  were  drawn  into  this  spiritual  attachment  He  chose 
Twelve,  "  whom  also  He  named  apostles,"  designating  them  to  be 
the  executors  and  organs  of  His  spirit — evangelists  of  the  Reign 
of  God.  The  apostle  John,  in  his  first  epistle,  describes  this 
theocratic  community  as  a  fellowship  of  love,  wherein  men  live 
as  brothers  under  the  sovereignty  of  the  Heavenly  Father.  The 
fine  gold  of  Christ's  ideal,  however,  soon  became  dimmed  by 
the  envyings,  jealousies  and  strife  of  men  who  carried  the  temper 
of  the  world  into  the  ecclesia.  Still,  this  fact  ought  not  to  prevent 
us  from  perceiving  the  true  aim  and  ideal  of  Jesus,  and  the  ways 
He  sought  to  carry  out  His  plan.  While  recognizing  all  the 
changes  that  have  taken  place  in  the  relation  of  the  Church  to 
the  world,  we  cannot  but  regret  that  so  few  in  this  age  hear 
and  respond  to  the  call  of  complete  self-renunciation ;  for  those 
who  would  succeed  to  the  apostolate  of  the  Twelve  must  follow 
Jesus,  just  as  did  those  early  disciples,  who  imitated  even  the  out- 
ward life  of  their  Lord.  Doubtless,  the  ministers  of  all  the 
churches  today  fulfil  important  duties  and  contribute  greatly 
to  the  general  weal  of  the  communities  in  which  they  live ;  but  the 
Reign  of  God  needs  men  who  will  follow  Jesus  even  to  the  re- 
linquishment of  all  that  the  civilized  world  esteems  so  highly 
in  regard  to  wealth  and  comfort.  He  calls  a  few  in  every  age  to 
be  apostles — imitators  of  Himself — and  a  few  such  citizens  of  the 
Divine  Kingdom  communicate  to  society  the  pungent,  preserving, 
transforming  qualities  of  righteousness ;  they  are  like  a  city  set 
on  a  hill,  or  a  lamp  throwing  its  illumination  over  the  home,  or 
a  light  of  the  world  shedding  a  purifying  radiance  in  the  midst  of 
the  surrounding  darkness.  Meanwhile  there  comes  to  all  the  call 
to  strive  to  realize  more  thoroughly  the  pure  ethic  of  love  taught 
by  Jesus ;  the  vision  disclosed  on  the  Mount  should  inspire  us  who 
still  walk  in  the  valley  to  seek  first  the  Reign  of  God  by  the 
practical,  daily  application  of  the  principles  of  His  righteousness. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  IDEAL  LIFE  OF  THE  NEW  KINGDOM— THE 
ORDINATION  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  MOUNT 

I.  The  election  of  the  Twelve  to  the  New  Apostolate  was  an 
event  of  tremendous  importance  in  the  ministry  of  Jesus,  and  the 
connection  of  what  is  commonly  known  as  "  The  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,"  with  the  ordination  of  the  Twelve,  suggested  by  St. 
Luke,  is  inherently  probable.  The  very  momentousness  of  this 
discourse  has  made  it  inevitable  that  no  small  part  of  the  criti- 
cism and  controversy  of  our  age  should  be  focused  upon  it. 
Many  believers  of  keen  ethical  insight  have  shown  a  tendency 
to  throw  overboard  the  creeds  and  dogmas  of  ecclesiastical 
theologians,  if  only  they  may  hold  fast  to  St.  Matthew's  record 
of  this  Sermon  as  the  true  charter  of  the  Church.  But  the 
existence  of  variant  reports  of  this  discourse  in  the  Gospels  of 
SS.  Matthew  and  Luke  has  given  rise  to  the  most  thorough- 
going criticism  of  the  text  and  hypotheses  of  its  origin  and  trans- 
mission. It  surprises  no  observer  of  present-day  modes  of 
thought  that  some  extremists  conclude  that  no  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  was  ever  delivered  by  Jesus.  St.  Matthew,  it  is  sug- 
gested, appears  to  have  compiled  the  reputed  login  of  Jesus  which 
were  floating  in  the  early  Church  without  concerning  himself 
deeply  about  such  questions  as  authenticity,  or  the  time  and 
locality  of  their  deliverance.  The  Evangelist  is  not  blamed  for 
loose  habits  of  editing;  for,  however  strict  the  rules  of  author- 
ship and  of  publishing  today,  the  first  century  was  free  from  such 
restraints ;  and  further  there  is  a  certain  timelessness  in  the  Word 
of  Truth.  A  more  conservative  school  of  critics  thinks  that,  in 
editing  the  traditional  Sermon  which  had  been  transmitted  to  the 
Church  through  several  channels,  the  Evangelist  indulged  his 
tendency  to  group  kindred  matter,  and  so  incorporated  with  it 
sayings  which  St.  Luke  has  placed  in  different  and  perhaps  cor- 
rect connections.^ 

*  Gore,  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount;  Hastings'  D.  B.  ext.  vol.,  p.  iff. 

146 


The  Ideal  Life  of  the  Kingdom  147 

2.  Although  the  controversies  concerning  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  are  raging  still  with  unabated  zeal,  we  shall  not  plunge 
into  the  labyrinth  by  vainly  attempting  to  trace  the  capillaries  of 
criticism  in  a  single  paragraph ;  but  neither  shall  we  forego  our 
right  of  stating  our  resultant  impressions  of  the  two  versions 
given  in  the  Gospels.  We  may  frankly  acknowledge  that  we  iden- 
tify the  discourse  delivered  on  the  plain,  which  St.  Luke  has 
recorded,  with  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  in  St.  Matthew. 
Resorting  again  to  the  method  of  impressionism,  we  have  been 
induced  to  believe  that  a  long  discourse  on  the  ideal  life,  under 
the  Sovereignty  of  God  the  Father,  was  delivered  by  Jesus  when 
He  chose  the  Twelve.^  Such  a  deliverance  could  not  fail  to  have 
been  worthy  of  the  epoch-making  event  which  gave  occasion  for 
it;  and  it  must  have  made  a  corresponding  impression  upon  the 
receptive  minds  of  those  who  listened,  so  that  the  oral  trans- 
mission of  those  great  sayings  was  secured  a  large  degree  of  ac- 
curacy. The  various  reports  ultimately  converged  upon  two  main 
lines  of  traditional  deposits  which  were  translated  from  Aramaic 
into  Greek  and  finally  found  imperishable  expression  in  the  com- 
pilation of  two  of  the  Gospels.  Lest  there  be  those  who  fear  that 
in  such  a  process  the  genuine  utterances  of  Jesus  might  be  sub- 
jected to  essential  change,  the  admission  of  Strauss  may  be 
recalled :  "  The  discourses  of  Jesus  like  fragments  of  granite 
could  not  be  dissolved  by  the  flood  of  the  oral  tradition,  but  were, 
perhaps,  not  seldom  torn  from  their  natural  connection,  floated 
away  from  the  original  strata,  and  landed,  like  fragments  of  rock, 
in  places  where  they  do  not  really  belong."  ^  However,  a  com- 
parative study  of  the  four  Gospels  enables  one  to  conjecture 
with  a  large  degree  of  probability  the  rightful  places  for  many 
'*  fragments  "  which  St.  Matthew  has  attached  to  the  great  Ser- 
mon. The  "  pattern  prayer,"  for  example,  was  probably  taught, 
as  St.  Luke  says,^  in  response  to  a  definite  request  after  the 
disciples  had  seen  the  Master  Himself  praying.  Singularly 
enough,  St.  Matthew  repeats  the  saying  about  divorce  *  at  a 
later  stage,  and  represents  it  as  Christ's  answer  to  the  Pharisees 
wiio  came  to  tempt  Him,^  while  the  logia  about  salt  and  light, 
about  reconciliation  with  an  adversary,  the  two  masters,  the 
ravens  and  lilies,  and  the  petitions  for  a  loaf,  fish  and  egg,  are 

*Luke  vi.  12-20.  ^  Luke  xi.  1-4. 

*  Strauss,  Life  of  Jesus,  Eng.  Ed.,  p.  342.  *Matt.  v.  31,  32. 

*  Matt.  xix.  3-9.     Cf.  Luke  xvi.  18. 


148  The  School  of  Jesus 

all  given  in  different  connections  in  St.  Luke's  gospel ; — such 
interpolations  in  St.  Matthew  do  not  obliterate  the  marks  of  a 
progressive  movement  in  the  Speaker's  thought ;  and  in  spite  of 
the  heterogeneous  elements  imbedded  in  it,  there  is  little  doubt 
that  St.  Matthew's  record  embodies  the  trustworthy  tradition  of 
a  real  discourse  once  spoken  by  Jesus. 

3.  After  a  night  of  prayer  and  the  formation  of  the  Tv(^elve 
into  a  new  apostolate,  Jesus  in  the  early  morning  descended 
the  mountain-side  till  He  came  to  a  level  place ;  and  here,  await- 
ing Him  or  coming  to  find  Him,  He  met  a  Galilean  multitude, 
who  were  attracted  by  His  rumoured  Messiahship  and  fascinated 
by  His  miracles.  The  greater  number  would  not  be  unkindly 
disposed,  but  there  were  probably  present  also  certain  Pharisees 
and  Scribes,  who  had  discovered  an  incipient  hostility  toward 
Jesus.  The  identification  of  the  mountain  with  Hattin,  at  the 
northwest  of  the  Lake,  is  a  matter  of  interest,  but  certainly  not  of 
vital  importance.  The  design  of  Jesus  was  to  teach  His  disciples 
the  true  Way  of  life.  St.  Luke  specifically  states  ^  that  "  He 
lifted  up  His  eyes  on  His  disciples  and  said,  Blessed  are  ye  poor," 
etc.  While  St.  Matthew  places  on  record  that  "  the  multitudes  " 
listened,  yet  the  primary  purpose  of  the  discourse  was  the  in- 
struction of  the  Twelve.  It  could  not  have  been  a  merely  fortu- 
itous congregation ;  the  multitudes  may  have  dimly  felt  the  ap- 
proach of  a  crisis,  and  while  they  could  not  have  anticipated  the 
character  of  the  Discourse  He  would  deliver,  they  had  probably 
come  on  purpose  to  hear  some  authoritative  and  definite  state- 
ment about  the  Kingdom.  But  while  we  would  not  describe  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  as  esoteric,  it  is  necessary  to  remember  that 
Jesus  had  in  view  not  so  much  the  needs  of  the  mixed  multitude 
as  the  special  requirements  of  the  disciples  He  had  chosen.  Al- 
though He  lifted  up  the  ideal  beatific  life  in  language  exquisitely 
clear  and  simple,  yet  only  those  minds  attuned  to  sympathy  with 
Jesus  could  possibly  enter  into  the  significance  of  His  doctrine. 
The  veil  of  popular  Messianism  rested  upon  the  hearts  of  the 
multitudes  so  that  they  could  not  understand  the  spirituality  of 
this  Christ.  Unless  we  apprehend  the  true  nature  of  this  Dis- 
course and  the  occasion  of  its  deliverance,  we  shall  be  tempted  to 
explain  away  the  stupendous  moral  demands  of  Jesus  and  to 
weaken  the  force  of  His  logia  by  attributing  the  rigorous  dis- 

*  Luke  vi.  20. 


The  Ideal  Life  of  the  Kingdom  149 

cipline  inculcated  to  the  extravagance  inherent  in  all  popular 
oratory.  The  teaching  of  this  ordination  charge  was  specially- 
designed  for  the  enlightenment  of  the  Twelve;  henceforth  Jesus 
gave  His  attention  to  their  instruction,  that  they  might  be  edu- 
cated in  the  mysteries  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

4.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  has  been  described  as  "  the 
installation  of  the  true  people  of  God  on  earth  by  the  proclama- 
tion of  the  only  righteousness  conformable  to  the  holy  nature  of 
God,  which  should  characterize  the  true  members  of  His  King- 
dom in  opposition  to  the  formal  righteousness  inculcated  by 
the  traditional  teachings  of  the  example  of  the  doctors."  The 
Beatitudes  not  only  form  the  prologue;  they  sum  up  the  Teach- 
er's thesis — the  blessed  life  of  the  citizen  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven.^  There  follows  from  this  felicitous  introduction  a  clear 
enunciation  of  the  disciple's  function  in  the  world ;  ^  and  a  clear 
definition  of  the  relation  of  the  new  Reign  to  the  Old  Covenant  ^ 
treating  the  external  commands  of  the  Decalogue  in  antithesis  to 
the  inner  motives  and  life  of  the  disciple.*  The  next  sayings 
relate  to  almsgiving  or  practical  righteousness,^  to  the  true 
nature  of  prayer,^  to  fasting  "^  and  to  trust  in  God,*  all  of  which 
are  to  be  regulated  by  the  principle  of  making  the  supreme  aim  to 
be  the  realization  of  God's  Reign.  Rash  judgement  of  one's 
fellow-men  is  forbidden ;  ^  and  God's  paternal  relation  to  us  is 
made  not  only  a  motive  of  prayer,  but  also  a  basis  for  loving 
reciprocity  between  men.^"  And  the  whole  discourse  is  concluded 
by  solemn  exhortations  and  warnings  which  are  gathered  up  in 
a  striking  parabolic  epilogue."  Beneath  all  the  supposed  gaps 
and  irrelevancies  one  can  trace  a  real  unity  of  thought  in  suc- 
cessive stages  of  development.  Instead  of  looking  upon  the 
abrupt  transitions  as  proofs  of  free  editorial  compilation,  we  may 
adapt  Browning's  defence  of  his  poetry :  "  I  know  that  I  don't 
make  out  my  conception  by  my  language ;  all  poetry  being  a 
putting  the  infinite  within  the  finite.  You  would  have  me  paint 
it  all  plain  out,  which  can't  be;  but  of  various  artifices  I  try  to 
make  shift  with  touches  and  bits  of  outline  which  succeed  if  they 

*  Matt.  V.  1-12 ;  Luke  vi.  20-26.  *  Matt.  vi.  5-8. 

*Matt.  V.  13-16.  'Matt.  vi.  16-18. 

*Matt.  V.  17-20.  'Matt.  vi.  19-34. 

^Matt.  V.  21-48;  Luke  vi.  27-36.  'Matt.  vii.  1-5. 

*Matt.  vi.  1-4.  '"  Matt.  vii.  1-12;  Luke  vi.  31,  37-42. 

"Matt.  vii.  13-27;  Luke  vi.  43-49. 


150  The  School  of  Jesus 

bear  the  conception  from  me  to  you.  You  ought,  I  think,  to 
keep  pace  with  the  thought,  tripping  from  ledge  to  ledge  of  my 
'  glaciers,'  as  you  call  them ;  not  stand  poking  your  alpenstock 
into  the  holes,  and  demonstrating  that  no  foot  could  have  stood 
there."  ^  The  records,  although  fragmentary,  abridged  and  vari- 
ant, will  not  permit  us  to  indulge  in  the  illusion  that  the  Sermon  is 
merely  a  mosaic  of  logia  compiled  without  relation  to  the  natural 
and  living  body  of  Christ's  teaching.  It  is  not  a  mosaic,  but  a 
cathedral  built  by  the  Master-mind  of  Jesus ;  the  Beatitudes 
constitute  a  richly  ornamented  porchway  and  entrance  into  the 
sanctuary  of  Truth ;  all  down  the  aisles  there  are  chapels  and 
shrines,  where  retreat  for  prayer  and  meditation  may  be  secured. 
Looking  at  this  structure  from  an  external  point  of  view,  it  seems 
to  reach  up  into  the  highest  sky  of  religious  poetry ;  but  the  es- 
sential design  is  not  apprehended  until  we  grope  down  the  steps 
to  the  cloisters  where  the  air  strikes  cold  and  damp,  and  where 
in  Reflection  the  mind  perceives  that  the  whole  building  is 
erected  on  the  plan  of  the  Cross.  Here,  at  the  very  foundations 
of  all  Christ's  teaching,  we  escape  the  arid  disputes  of  false 
learning,  and  our  minds  become  impregnated  with  the  Master's 
Spirit  of  sacrificial  love. 

5.  In  their  treatment  of  Christ's  teaching,  scholars  have  often 
imitated  those  soldiers  who  divided  His  seamless  garment,  and, 
choosing  those  parts  which  fall  in  with  their  preconceptions,  they 
have  alternately  set  Him  forth  either  as  a  sage  or  as  a  prophet. 
The  enthusiasm  of  the  one  appears  to  them  incompatible  with 
the  calm,  deep,  comprehensive  thought  of  the  other.  Probably 
renewed  examination  of  the  whole  body  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
will  disclose  a  deeper  unity  than  is  sometimes  suspected,  in  which 
the  unlike  elements  are  comprehended.  The  Preacher  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  one  with  the  Seer  who  poured  out  his 
soul  in  the  great  Apocalypse;  and  as  we  meditate  upon  the  pro- 
found and  beautiful  sayings  of  the  former,  we  shall  discern  lines 
of  convergence  upon  the  person  of  the  Speaker.  Jesus  is  never 
simply  a  philosopher:  even  in  His  most  detached  and  axiomatic 
truths  we  catch  the  accent  of  personal  authority ;  He  Himself  is 
the  Truth.  Since  the  fifth  century  b.c,  Judaism  had  become  al- 
most wholly  legalistic  in  its  method;  but  externalism,  whether 
under  the  guise  of  Confucian  propriety  or  of  Jewish  law,  fails 
1  Collingwood,  Life  of  Ruskin,  i.  199. 


The  Ideal  Life  of  the  Kingdom  151 

to  change  man's  heart.  Jesus,  seeing  this,  turned  away  from  the 
hard  and  narrow  routine  of  Pharisaism  and  adopted  the  plan  of 
imparting  new  inspiration  to  men  by  lifting  up  the  ideal.  Jesus 
thus  characterized  His  own  teaching  as  Spirit  and  Truth.  We 
emphasize  this  mark  of  Christ's  teaching  because  if  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  were  only  a  more  detailed  form  of  moral  legislation, 
it  would  keep  us  in  bondage  as  minors,  and  would  hang  upon  the 
free  spirit  as  a  burden.  Jesus  did  not  merely  formulate  new 
rules;  He  laid  down  principles  of  life  which  require  to  be  inter- 
preted and  applied  by  the  Divine  Spirit  within  man. 

6.  One  of  the  fashions  of  criticism  has  been  the  attempt  to 
discover  parallels  for  the  sayings  of  Jesus  in  the  old  Hebrew 
Scriptures,  or  in  the  remains  of  Rabbinic  writers,  in  Greek  philos- 
ophy or  Buddhist  exhortation,  which  seem  to  some  readers  to 
rob  Jesus  of  all  originality.  And  yet  it  in  nowise  detracts  from 
the  freshness  and  beauty  of  the  Beatitudes,  or  from  the  truth  of 
the  Golden  Rule,  to  trace  their  counterparts  in  other  literatures 
outside  the  Gospels.  If  the  sayings  of  Jesus  or  of  any  other 
possess  vitality,  naturalness  and  sincerity,  the  discovery  of  dupli- 
cates will  not  prevent  us  from  attributing  the  quality  of  originality 
to  the  speaker.  The  dewy  freshness  and  translucence  of  the 
Beatitudes  remain  unaffected  by  our  remembrance  of  correspond- 
ing thoughts  in  the  Hebrew  Psalms.  One  of  the  problems  of 
modern  criticism  is  whether  St.  Luke's  version  or  St.  Matthew's 
should  be  considered  the  more  authentic  translation  of  the  Ara- 
maic original.  Should  it  happen  that  St.  Luke's  record  comes 
to  be  preferred  still  we  shall  ever  owe  a  debt  to  the  evangelist  who 
saves  us  from  falling  into  an  unbalanced  literalism.  While 
Jesus  may  have  uttered  His  Beatitudes  in  the  shorter  form  of 
St.  Luke's  Gospel,  it  is  self-evident  to  our  consciences  that  St. 
Matthew  has  caught  the  inner  meaning  of  the  Master's  teaching. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  forbidden  us  to  suppose  that  Jesus 
may  have  treated  His  Beatitudes  as  texts,  and  repeated  them 
in  varying  ways.  The  question  as  to  the  proper  number  of  the 
Beatitudes,  whether  four  or  eight,  is  not  easily  answered;  those 
sayings  concerning  the  meek,  the  merciful,  the  pure  and  the 
peace-makers  may  have  been  spoken  at  different  times,  although 
St.  Matthew  followed  his  literary  instinct  in  adding  them  to 
the  four  recorded  by  St.  Luke.  Again,  the  antithetic  "  woes  " 
in  the  Third  Gospel  may  be  parts  of  the  original  sermon,  or  may 


152  The  School  of  Jesus 

have  been  integrated  with  it  in  the  process  of  oral  transmission. 
A  parallel  is  sometimes  drawn  between  the  giving  of  the  Mosaic 
Law  and  the  "  installation  "  Discourse  of  Jesus ;  but  such  a  com- 
parison only  emphasizes  the  contrast  already  referred  to  between 
the  Spirit  of  the  old  and  the  new.  Jesus  lifted  up  the  ideal  of 
life  in  the  Kingdom  of  God  to  inspire  His  disciples  to  heightened 
aspiration  and  endeavour :  He  laid  stress  on  love  rather  than 
legalism;  He  wooed  His  pupils  with  persuasive  ideals;  He  did 
not*  enact  a  new  legislation. 

7.  This  "  ordination  "  Discourse  was  Christ's  annunciation  of 
true  happiness,  secured  by  the  practice  of  true  righteousness. 
The  word  translated  ixauapio?  (blessed)  was  probably  the 
Hebrew  term  ashre  used  in  so  many  psalms,  which  the  lexicons 
define  as  "  to  go  straight  out,"  "  to  prosper,"  "  to  be  rightly  con- 
stituted." On  the  lips  of  Jesus  it  described  the  progressive  and 
happy  condition  of  one  whose  chief  end  of  life  is  to  do  God's 
Will.  Like  Marcus  Aurelius  at  a  later  time,  Jesus  transferred 
the  source  of  happiness  from  the  external  circumstances  to  the 
inward  life  of  man :  hence,  in  the  Reign  of  God,  the  most  unblest 
in  outward  lot  may  be  the  most  blessed  in  spirit  and  reality. 
Happiness  follows  as  an  effect  from  its  cause,  and  belongs  equally 
to  the  present  state  and  the  future.  This  will  be  regarded  as  but 
a  pious  fiction  invented  to  keep  up  one's  courage,  if  we  resort 
to  the  calculation  of  "  compensations  " :  its  truth  depends  wholly 
upon  one's  attitude  to  God.  The  happy  poor  are  those  who  in 
adversity  and  want  realize  their  dependence  upon  God,  and 
through  their  poverty  acquire  a  new  wealth  of  soul.  Our  ob- 
servation of  life  and  reading  of  history  show  that  God's  most 
faithful  servants  are  not,  as  a  rule,  drawn  from  the  affluent;  too 
often  it  is  found  that  riches  induce  in  their  possessors  a  quasi- 
independence  which  alienates  the  mind  from  God.  Jesus,  how- 
ever, here  gives  no  command  to  reduce  one's  self  to  outward 
poverty  any  more  than  He  enjoins  us  to  create  mourning  or 
court  persecution.  But  under  the  Sovereignty  of  God  mourning — 
i.e.,  all  sadness  and  sorrows  caused  by  bereavement,  loss  or 
penitence — may  be  transmuted  into  beatitude,  since  by  it  the  torn 
heart  is  made  sensitive  to  Divine  consolations.  The  meek  are 
akin  to  the  poor,  God's  lowly  ones ;  the  Hebrew  word  (  D'\JN  )  is 

rendered  either  "  poor  "  or  "  meek."    Our  English  connotation  of 
the  word  "  meekness  "  is  often  a  soft,  yielding  temper  with  a 


The  Ideal  Life  of  the  Kingdom  153 

tendency  to  weakness;  but  Christ's  ideal  of  meekness  was  an 
heroic  character  based  on  humble  submission  before  God  and  self- 
abnegation  among  men.  In  Jesus  Himself  we  find  the  best  type 
of  Biblical  meekness :  that  equipoise  of  moral  qualities  which 
results  from  a  right  standing  before  God.  He  was  able  to  say: 
"  Take  My  yoke  upon  you  and  learn  of  Me,  for  I  am  meek  and 
lowly  in  heart,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls."  Among 
the  ancient  Greeks  and  the  English  of  modern  times,  the  self- 
assertive,  active  and  heroic  qualities  have  secured  admiration, 
while  paradoxically  Jesus  attributes  triumph  and  earth's  inherit- 
ance to  those  who  possess  meekness.  The  true  joy  of  possession 
never  accompanies  pride,  and  victory  belongs  truly  only  to  self- 
sacrifice. 

8.  In  the  fourth  Beatitude,  we  pass  from  the  passive  to  the 
more  positive  traits  in  the  characters  of  those  who  belong  to  the 
Kingdom  of  God;  happiness  is  ascribed  to  the  man  who  cherishes 
an  earnest  longing  after  righteousness.  There  is  an  affinity  be- 
tween this  saying  of  Jesus  and  the  Pauline  doctrine  of  justifica- 
tion by  faith ;  the  Apostle  translated  the  ethic  of  Jesus  into  the 
category  of  jurisprudence;  the  "faith"  or  "hunger"  contains 
in  itself  the  germinant  principle  of  all  righteousness.  The  longing 
for  right — an  appetite  that  refuses  to  remain  unsatiated,  the 
resolute  pursuit  of  righteousness  in  all  life's  manifold  relation- 
ships— will  be  rewarded  with  repletion.  In  the  character  of  God 
the  Father  the  correlate  of  righteousness  is  mercy,  and  both  these 
qualities  must  be  reproduced  in  the  subject  child  of  the  Divine 
Reign.  When  Jesus  said,  "  Blessed  are  the  merciful,  for  they 
shall  obtain  mercy,"  He  made  the  receptivity  of  God's  grace  to  be 
conditional  upon  man's  active  exercise  of  a  Godlike  temper. 
A  callous  indifference  to  suffering  was  the  mark  of  paganism, 
even  at  its  highest.  Aristotle  took  but  little  account  of  pity  in 
his  catalogue  of  the  springs  of  human  action :  such  an  emotion 
was  treated  as  a  disturbing  factor  in  the  sunny,  strong  serenity  of 
the  Greek  temper;  but  Jesus,  by  His  word  and  example,  intro- 
duced a  new  tide  of  compassion,  which  has  proved  one  of  the 
mightiest  forces  in  all  subsequent  progress.  His  altruism  gave  a 
new  sensitiveness  to  human  conscience.  "  The  public  mind  has 
become  so  intolerant  of  the  sight  of  misery  or  wrong  of  any  kind 
that,  as  the  conditions  of  the  life  of  the  excluded  masses  of  the 
people  are  gradually  brought  under  discussion  and  come  into  the 


154  The  School  of  Jesus 

light,  this  feeling  of  intolerance  slowly  gathers  force,  until  at  last 
it  finds  expression  in  that  powerful  body  of  opinion  or  sentiment 
which  has  been  behind  all  the  great  social  and  political  reforms  of 
our  time."  ^  The  next  Beatitude  is  conjoined  with  purity  of 
heart — a  state  of  mind  essential  to  the  perception  of  God.  Such 
purity  is  not  merely  the  absence  of  moral  stain:  nor  must  it  be 
restricted  to  signify  a  prohibition  of  sensuality;  it  denotes  sim- 
plicity— a  singleness  of  aim  issuing  in  undivided  allegiance  to  the 
rightful  Master  of  the  soul;  it  is  no  mere  negation,  but  a  holy 
fire.  The  Beatific  Vision  is  as  much  a  natural  consequence 
as  a  supernatural  reward:  it  is  the  consciousness  of  God's  pres- 
ence which  accompanies  a  participation  in  the  Divine  character. 
The  outward  senses  are  duplicates  of  inward,  spiritual  faculties : 
as  soon  as  the  cloud  lifts  above  the  sanctuary,  the  inner  eye  at- 
tains its  direct  and  sure  vision  of  the  Divine.  Plotinus  formu- 
lated the  condition  of  all  such  spiritual  perception :  "  He  must 
become  Godlike  who  desires  to  see  God."  In  order  to  know  Him 
and  to  recognize  His  approaches  to  the  soul,  there  must  be  moral 
affinity  and  sympathy  between  Subject  and  Object. 

9.  Both  active  and  passive  states  of  the  citizen  of  God's 
Kingdom  are  described  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  Beatitudes: 
such  an  one  makes  peace  and  patiently  endures  persecution  and 
calumny  for  righteousness'  sake.  Christ  is  the  Prince  of  Peace ; 
His  great  work  in  our  world  has  been  to  reconcile  God  and  man. 
Strife  and  discord  are  contrary  to  the  Divine  Reign,  whether 
they  be  exhibited  in  the  Church  or  in  the  world's  organizations 
of  society  and  nations.  The  Peace  of  God  which  passes  under- 
standing is,  however,  no  facile  acquisition ;  it  is  something  that 
must  be  sought  after  and  gained  by  moral  effort:  it  is  both  the 
gift  of  God's  grace  and  the  moral  achievement  of  man.  Yet  even 
he  who  makes  peace  carries  a  sword ;  he  is  often  misunderstood, 
and  incurs  the  reproach  of  those  whom  he  essays  to  bless.  Still, 
they  who  bear  contumelies  and  persecution  for  righteousness' 
sake  have  the  blessing  of  knowing  that  they  are  diffusing  God's 
peace  in  the  world. 

ID.     No  separate  beatitude  has  been  pronounced  by  Jesus  upon 
Love;  but  our  surprise  at  this  omission  is  removed  by  the  re- 
flection that  all  the  virtues  blessed  are  but  facets  of  the  one  dia- 
*  Kidd,  Social  Evolution,  chap  vii.,  190,  191. 


The  Ideal  Life  of  the  Kingdom  155 

mond  of  Christlike  love.  These  eight  beatitudes  describe  the  ideal 
character  of  the  new  theocracy;  they  reveal  the  stature  of  the 
manhood  of  Jesus — His  experiences  crystallized  into  these  eight 
words.  His  holy  mind  was  distilled  in  perfect  speech.  There  are 
those  who  pronounce  the  ideal  of  Jesus  incomplete; — it  is  too 
other-worldly :  it  lacks  those  harder,  sterner,  more  heroic  quali- 
ties that  have  ever  made  the  deepest  impress  upon  civilization ; 
Jesus  has  given  no  beatitude  to  those  civic  and  political  virtues 
which  ought  to  characterize  man's  relations  to  the  state,  and 
which  set  forth  the  ideal  of  public  duty.  According  to  such 
critics  the  ideal  of  Jesus  is  too  soft,  too  spiritual,  and  bears  no 
adjustment  to  the  stern  conditions  of  our  modern  world.  We 
shall  seek  to  answer  this  criticism  in  the  following  pages ;  here 
we  may  simply  point  out  that  the  subjectivism  is  spiritual,  the 
individualism  of  Jesus  is  compatible  with  the  true  universalism 
of  humanity,  and  that  the  emphasis  upon  the  inward  state  of  man's 
life  is  balanced  by  the  unifying  conception  of  God's  Reign. 
Other  sages  have  deemed  the  blessed  life  as  possible  only  for 
a  few — excluding  slaves,  paupers  and  victims  of  disease;  but 
Jesus  declares  that  all  alike  may  win  true  happiness  by  seeking 
it  not  in  external  possessions,  but  within  the  soul  itself,  when 
it  becomes  the  subject  and  son  of  the  Divine  Sovereign  and 
Father.  As  though  He  would  accentuate  this  inwardness  of 
beatitude,  St.  Luke  records  that  Jesus  pronounced  antithetic 
woes  against  wealth,  satiety,  laughter  and  worldly  reputation. 
Jesus  condemned  the  very  things  that  Aristotle  had  deemed  neces- 
sary conditions  of  the  blessed  life,  condemning  them  not  arbitra- 
rily and  without  reason,  but  on  the  ground  that  they  tend  to 
make  man  forget  his  absolute  dependence  upon  God's  bounty. 
Such  paradoxes  can  be  understood  only  when  man's  life  is  viewed 
in  relationship  to  God:  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  the  Divine 
strength  is  made  perfect  in  our  weakness.  While  the  right  use  of 
wealth  and  the  diffusion  of  glad  laughter  might  extend  God's 
Reign,  these  material  conditions  are  also  often  made  obstruc- 
tions to  man's  full  recognition  of  God's  Sovereigntv  and 
Fatherhood. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  ETHIC  OF  DISCIPLESHIP  IN  THE  REIGN  OF 

GOD 

1.  Jesus  cannot  be  said  to  have  differentiated  between  ethics 
and  reHgion.  In  His  teaching  these  two  things  are  one,  or  at 
least  they  run  into  each  other  with  such  fine  nuances  as  defy 
attempts  at  deHmitation.  The  Sacred  Books  of  the  East  prohibit 
us  from  saying  that  morahty  and  reHgion  are  theoretically  in- 
separable; but  in  the  Gospels,  true  religion  expresses  itself 
always  in  the  ethical  life.  In  the  Chinese  Analects  it  is  shown 
that  Confucius,  after  the  manner  of  a  modern  Positivist,  actually 
began  a  divorce  of  this  nature;  the  sage  was  more  concerned 
about  morality  than  about  the  rites  of  religion,  and  he  de- 
fined man's  correct  behaviour  thus,  "  To  give  one's  self  ear- 
nestly to  the  duties  due  to  man,  and  while  respecting  spiritual 
beings,  to  keep  aloof  from  them."  Gautama,  the  Indian  saint,  ad- 
vanced still  farther  on  this  way;  for,  however  pure  and  noble 
the  pessimistic  ethic  of  Buddha  may  have  been,  it  is  no  slander 
to  characterize  it  as  fundamentally  atheistic.  Although  God  has 
not  at  any  time  left  Himself  without  witness,  these  great  teachers 
failed  to  attain  the  clear  vision  of  Him ;  and,  since  the  contempo- 
rary religious  beliefs  were  corrupt  in  their  eyes,  they  sought  to 
base  their  ethical  systems  on  the  ground  of  existent  social  rela- 
tionships. In  fine  contrast  with  their  method,  Jesus  frankly  built 
upon  the  lofty  monotheism  of  His  race.  The  "  ordination " 
Discourse,  uttered  after  the  designation  of  the  Twelve  to  the 
Apostolate,  consisted  in  the  clearest  annunciation  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  life  which  must  guide  the  subjects  of  God's  Sovereignty. 
The  ethic  inculcated  by  Jesus  was  differentiated  from  the  sys- 
tems alluded  to  by  its  dependence  upon  man's  acknowledged  re- 
lationship to  God,  and  likewise  from  both  contemporary  Judaism 
and  ancient  Mosaism  by  the  intense  realization  that  this  God 
is  man's  Heavenly  Father. 

2.  Before  exploiting  this  fundamental  and  architectonic  idea 
of  God's  paternal  relation  with  man,  we  may  glance  at  a  more 

156 


The  Ethic  of  Discipleship  157 

momentous  question  than  that  concerning  the  connection  of  ethics 
and  reHgion — viz.  whether  it  is  possible  for  us  to  accept  the 
ethic  of  Jesus  as  authoritative  and  final.  Writers  ^  of  the  school 
of  John  Mill  charge  the  teaching  of  Jesus  with  incomplete- 
ness; and,  while  offering  respectful  homage  to  the  Galilean 
Sage,  they  complain  that  His  doctrine  is  too  negative  and  too 
remote  from  the  issues  of  modern  life  to  give  adequate  guid- 
ance. According  to  them,  the  ethic  of  Jesus  lacks  the  note  of 
finality,  because  it  fails  to  give  due  place  to  the  duties  of  public 
life  and  to  communicate  the  definite  direction  we  all  long  for 
amid  the  labyrinths  of  the  civilization  which  is  vaguely  mis- 
named "  Christian."  Such  a  criticism  as  this  receives  strong 
support  from  the  popular  perception  of  the  immense  disparity 
between  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  the  actual  code  of  morals 
guiding  the  conduct  of  the  average  professing  Christian  in  his 
public  and  business  life.  If  this  criticism  be  valid,  if  Jesus  can- 
not give  us  the  authoritative  and  final  Word  of  Life  in  all 
emergencies,  then  let  us  acknowledge  His  limitations,  and  set 
ourselves  to  discover  a  more  adequate  guide  for  our  modern 
world;  but  before  acquiescing  in  these  accusations,  it  is  surely 
wise  to  consider  the  exact  nature  of  Christ's  teaching,  and  also 
to  reflect  what  was  possible  in  the  circumstances  of  His  mis- 
sion. The  recollection  of  what  we  have  repeatedly  pointed  out, 
that  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  was  primarily  designed  for  the 
special  instruction  of  the  Twelve,  will  draw  the  sting  from  the 
frequently  uttered  opinion  that  very  few,  if  any,  of  those  who  call 
themselves  Christians  actually  try  to  live  according  to  these 
sublime  logia.  And  next,  it  is  easily  discerned  that  Jesus  could 
not  have  spoken  in  any  definite  and  satisfactory  manner  about 
the  Jews'  relation  to  the  state  without  seeming  to  encourage  that 
political  and  revolutionary  Messianism  which  would  have  in- 
volved Him  in  the  fatal  vengeance  of  Rome  within  six  months  of 
His  beginning  public  work.  Besides,  had  He  spoken  what  was 
a  propos  in  that  age,  concerning  the  citizen's  particular  duties 
to  the  state,  His  teaching  would  have  been  an  anachronism  in  the 
twentieth  century.  The  one  method  of  escaping  the  charge  of 
political  incendiarism  in  that  first  century,  on  the  one  hand,  and 

^  Mill,  Essay  on  Liberty,  People's  Ed.  II.,  p.  29.  "  Christian  morality 
so-called  has  all  the  characteristics  of  a  reaction ;  it  is  in  great  part  a 
protest  against  Paganism.  Its  ideal  is  negative  rather  than  positive; 
passive  rather  than  active ;  innocence  rather  than  nobleness ;  abstinence 
from  evil  rather  than  energetic  pursuit  of  the  good." 


158  The  School  of  Jesus 

of  irrelevance  to  the  needs  of  succeeding  epochs  on  the  other, 
was  that  adopted  by  Jesus  of  lifting  up  an  ideal  rather  than  a  new 
code — of  dealing  with  principles  rather  than  with  definite  rules, 
of  speaking  in  the  Eternal  Spirit  rather  than  to  perishing  flesh. 
And  renewed  study  of  His  teaching  has  ever  served  to  elicit  fresh 
guidance  for  man,  and  also  to  demonstrate  His  Lordship  over 
every  age.  The  further  vindication  of  adequacy  and  authority 
of  Christ's  ethics  will  be  found  in  each  succeeding  step  of  this 
study  of  His  ministry.  The  marvel  of  Christ's  plan,  and  the 
execution  of  it  which  steadily  grows  upon  the  mind  with  increas- 
ing understanding,  is  the  perfect  wisdom  He  exhibited  at  every 
stage. 

3.  The  teaching  of  Jesus  has  many  facets,  and  can  never  be 
exhausted  from  one  standpoint:  hence,  while  the  theme  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  may  be  defined  as  the  Blessed  Life,  or 
the  Perfect  Righteousness,  the  unifying  idea  of  this  ethical  dis- 
course may  with  equal  truth  be  described  as  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven.  But  then  the  governing  conception  of  that  Divine  Reign 
in  the  mind  of  Christ  was  the  Fatherhood  of  God.  A  few  of  the 
sayings  of  Jesus,  chosen  almost  at  random,  will  demonstrate  the 
formative  influence,  the  persistence  and  penetrative  energy  of 
this  thought :  "  Let  your  light  so  shine  before  men,  that  they  may 
see  your  good  works  and  glorify  your  Father  in  Heaven."  "  Be 
ye  sons  of  your  Heavenly  Father,  for  He  causes  His  sun  to  rise 
on  the  good  and  on  the  evil,  and  His  rain  to  fall  on  the  righteous 
and  the  unrighteous."  "  Be  merciful  even  as  your  Father  is 
Merciful."  ^  "  Be  ye  therefore  perfect  even  as  your  heavenly 
Father  is  perfect."  Alms  must  be  given  without  ostentation  as 
before  the  Father  in  heaven.  Prayer  is  to  be  made  to  God  as 
"  thy  Father  "  who  hears  and  answers.  Only  a  fool  would  ex- 
pect an  answer,  as  Heinrich  Heine  said,  unless  there  be  the  con- 
trolling idea  of  the  Divine  Fatherhood  in  the  mind.  According  to 
Jesus  God  is  trustworthy,  "  for  your  Father  knows  what  things 
you  need  even  before  you  ask  Him."  Such  recurrence  of  the 
Divine  name  in  the  Mountain  Discourse  cannot  be  attributed  to 
the  accident  of  a  meagre  vocabulary ;  it  is  the  designed  reiteration 
of  a  Master  Teacher,  who  desired  to  stamp  this  conception  of 
God  upon  the  minds  of  His  disciples  forever ;  to  be  their  inspira- 
tion— the  motive  of  all  goodness  and  the  consolation  of  every  sor- 

^Luke  vi.  36. 


The  Ethic  of  Discipleship  159 

row.  He  would  have  them  seize  this  fresh  revelation  experimen- 
tally, and  deduce  from  it  all  legitimate  inferences.  This  conscious- 
ness of  the  Fatherhood  of  God  is  like  the  circumambient  and 
universally  diffused  atmosphere  in  which  alone  the  ideal  of  the 
Blessed  Life  may  be  realized.  And  yet,  according  to  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus,  approximation  of  character  to  the  Divine  likeness 
is  the  essential  condition  of  true  knowledge  of  God:  mere  words 
convey  but  little  of  such  truths  as  these ;  they  are  learned  morally 
and  experimentally :  only  by  living  in  correspondence  with  the 
Father  can  the  intellect  come  at  length  to  master  this  spiritual 
revelation. 

4.  The  consciousness  of  the  Divine  Fatherhood  was  the  neces- 
sary antithesis  implicated  in  the  filial  Spirit  of  Jesus.  It  seems 
not  to  have  been  gained  by  intellectual  processes ;  it  was  something 
given  in  the  very  ground  of  His  Humanity.  Priority  and  pos- 
teriority belong  equally  to  the  eye  and  to  the  light;  there  could 
be  no  light  without  the  seeing  eye  that  may  be  touched  by  the 
undulations  of  ether,  and,  from  the  evolutionary  standpoint,  no 
eye  could  have  been  developed  without  the  outward  stimuli  falling 
upon  the  sensitive  pigment-spot.  The  inevitability  of  this  logical 
circle  demonstrates  the  existence  of  some  comprehensive  potency 
which  originates  and  conditions  all  subjective  and  objective  inter- 
actions such  as  these.  In  some  such  manner  may  we  speak  of  the 
filial  consciousness  of  Jesus;  in  it  is  also  given  the  reality  of 
Divine  Paternity :  neither  of  these  terms  can  be  postulated  with- 
out the  other.  And  these  correlatives  of  Fatherhood  and  Sonship 
constituted  the  root-conception  of  the  entire  ethic  of  Jesus;  all 
His  teaching  on  moral  and  social  relationships  grew  with  the  in- 
evitability of  a  biological  law  from  these  radical  ideas.  The 
Reign  of  God,  as  He  was  known  to  Jesus,  necessarily  draws  men 
into  a  brotherhood ;  it  creates  love  by  love,  and  thus  brings  about 
the  fulfilment  of  all  law.  For  the  culture  of  such  a  catholic 
virtue  aspiration  and  effort  are  demanded;  and  yet  we  know 
love  cannot  be  commanded :  it  must  unfold  spontaneously  under 
the  radiance  of  Christ's  conception  of  God.  The  idea  of  the 
Divine  Fatherhood  is  the  sun  of  our  inward  sky,  and,  like  the 
Greenland  sun,  it  never  sinks  below  the  horizon.  Our  socialist 
reformers  will  yet  learn  that  no  efforts  to  make  the  sentiment  of 
brotherhood  practical  and  regulative  can  possibly  succeed  apart 
from  a  participation  in  Christ's  consciousness  of  God.    The  ethic 


160  The  School  of  Jesus 

of  perfect  reciprocity  is  paradoxical,  and  impossible  for  all  who 
live  on  the  accepted  plane  of  modern  civilization  with  its  end- 
less competitions  and  rivalries.  The  maxim  of  non-resistance 
to  evil,  the  injunction  to  turn  the  other  cheek  to  the  smiter,  and 
the  bare  suggestion  of  returning  good  for  evil,  are  in  contradic- 
tion to  the  instincts  and  common  sense  of  men :  hence,  even 
church-members  hasten  to  empty  all  such  rules  of  their  positive 
meaning.  And  yet  the  common  opinion  that  Jesus  lifted  up  an  im- 
possible standard  is  one  of  the  credentials  which  attest  its 
imperishability.  Jesus  took  knowledge  of  that  in  man  which 
is  like  the  penumbra  of  the  Infinite,  and  gave  a  corresponding 
extension  to  His  religious  ethic.  Had  His  teachings  been  less 
spiritual  or  less  exalted,  His  sovereignty  over  conscience  would 
have  come  to  an  end — i.e.  the  mind  would  have  been  driven  to 
look  for  another  King.  The  ideal  Jesus  gave  was  an  exact  replica 
of  His  own  inward  life,  and  it  abides  as  the  world's  exhaust- 
less  inspiration  to  aspire  after  the  perfect  life. 

5.  The  poignancy  and  burden  of  the  problem  which  rests  upon 
the  Christian  conscience,  however,  is  that  the  ethical  ideal  of 
Jesus  seems  incompatible  with  the  actual  institutions  and  customs 
of  human  society.^  Therefore,  if  we  sit  at  the  foot  of  the  letter 
and  treat  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  as  a  new  code  imposed  upon 
us  by  an  external  authority,  we  shall  either  be  impelled  toward 
anarchy,  or  compelled  to  abandon  the  ethic  of  Jesus  as  irrelevant 
to  the  actualities  of  our  world.  In  one  of  his  Irish  dramas,  Mr. 
Yeats  gives  the  result  of  a  man's  attempt  to  model  his  life  on  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  as  a  mania  for  tearing  up  and  destroying  every- 
thing. The  doctrine  of  non-resistance  leaves  no  margin  for 
militarism ;  the  inculcation  of  unlimited  forgiveness  undermines 
the  whole  of  our  judicial  and  forensic  institutions.  The  answer 
to  this  objection  is  twofold:  the  Sermon  is  an  ideal  and  not  a 
code;  it  was  addressed  specially  to  men  designated  for  the  new 

*  E.  G.  Lecky,  History  of  European  Morals,  vol.  ii.,  p.  139.  "  A  candid 
examination  will  show  that  the  Christian  civilizations  have  been  as  in- 
ferior to  the  Pagan  ones  in  civic  and  intellectual  virtues  as  they  have 
been  superior  to  them  in  the  virtues  of  humanity  and  of  chastity."  The 
same  writer  affirms  that  the  new  faith  was  greatly  aided  by  a  decline  of 
patriotism.  "  The  relations  of  Christianity  to  the  sentiment  of  patriotism 
were  from  the  first  very  unfortunate.  While  the  Christians  were,  for  ob- 
vious reasons,  completely  separated  from  the  national  spirit  of  Judaea,  they 
found  themselves  equally  at  variance  with  the  lingering  remnants  of  Ro- 
man patriotism."    Vol.  ii.,  p.  140. 


The  Ethic  of  Discipleship  161 

apostolate,  and  was  not  for  miscellaneous  application.  Ad- 
mirably noble  as  the  conduct,  character  and  personal  influence  of 
Count  Tolstoy  are,  and  persuasive  though  his  literary  style  may 
be,  yet  his  method  of  interpretation  carries  one  back  into  an 
unspiritual  and  servile  state  when  a  rule  must  be  carried  out 
whether  it  be  understood  or  not.  Legislation  must  never  be  too 
far  advanced  beyond  popular  feeling,  or  it  will  be  silently  de- 
potentiated  of  authority  by  persistent  disobedience;  an  ideal,  on 
the  contrary,  while  it  creates  the  sense  of  failure,  helps  to  bring 
out  of  man's  travail  a  new  birth  to  the  moral  will.  The  puz- 
zled disciple  asks,  "  Lord,  shall  I  forgive  seven  times  ?  "  and  the 
answer  is  given,  "  Yea,  till  seven  times  seventy."  "  If  I  am  smit- 
ten, am  I  to  turn  the  other  cheek?  "  "  If  one  rob  me  of  my  coat, 
ought  I  to  reward  his  theft  by  a  gift  of  yet  another  garment?" 
Those  who  treat  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  as  an  external  legis- 
lative authority  will  be  forced  to  answer  these  queries  in  the 
affirmative.  But  if  this  "  ordination  "  Discourse  be  a  reflection 
in  imperfect  speech  of  Christ's  Ideal,  we  shall  not  be  bound  by 
the  outward  letter  as  by  an  outward  chain,  but  we  shall  be  drawn 
into  approximations  and  conformities  by  its  spirit.  Jesus  leaves 
room  for  the  exercise  of  reason  and  conscience;  He  speaks  to 
His  disciples  not  as  to  slaves,  but  as  to  sons  of  the  Heavenly 
Father  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  In  this  Divine  Brotherhood  of 
the  Kingdom  each  disciple  must  judge  whether  both  the  good  of 
an  offender  and  of  society  may  not  demand  correction.  There  are 
instances  where  non-resistance,  literally  carried  out,  would  aug- 
ment malignant  evils:  because  of  the  fraternal  bond  the  wicked 
wishes  of  criminals  and  madmen  must  be  resisted  and  those  who 
purpose  evil  must  be  restrained.  Brotherhood  esteems  the  good 
of  all,  and  if  necessary  will  subjugate  the  individual  ends  to  the 
wider  goal  of  the  Kingdom. 

6.  But  while  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  transfers  the  emphasis 
from  the  external  rule  to  the  inward  principle,  and  makes  the 
motive  love  rather  than  law,  it  also  throws  an  intense  illumina- 
tion upon  the  inward  life  of  man,  and  interrogates  the  secret 
thoughts  and  emotions  which  are  hidden  from  all  save  Omni- 
science. The  world's  lawmakers  have  been  content  to  forbid  out- 
ward acts  of  murder,  adultery  and  theft ;  but  Jesus,  although  He 
emancipates  us  from  the  bondage  of  the  law,  draws  us  under  the 
radiance  of  an  ideal  that  lays  bare  the  essential  nature  of  sin, 


162  The  School  of  Jesus 

showing  that  hate  carries  in  itself  the  guilt  of  murder,  and  the 
cherishing  of  a  fleshly  desire  is  the  seed  of  adulterous  acts.  No 
mere  cult  of  external  propriety  could  satisfy  Jesus ;  He  set  Him- 
self to  purify  our  life  at  its  springs.  The  very  loftiness  and 
rigour  of  this  Ideal  testify  to  the  infinite  value  of  man's  life 
in  the  eyes  of  God.  The  invisible  part  of  man's  life  receives 
an  accentuation  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  such  as  was  requisite 
to  balance  the  tendency,  of  sects  as  wide  asunder  as  Pharisee  and 
Confucian,  to  lay  stress  almost  wholly  upon  the  ceremonial  aspects 
of  life  and  conduct.  In  the  heart  of  man  lies  coiled  that  main- 
spring which  gives  power  to  all  the  intricate  movements  of  life. 
But  this  declaration  by  Jesus  of  the  essential  value  of  those  hidden 
sources  of  power  and  motive  in  the  secret  hearts  of  men  gave  no 
sanction  for  minimizing  the  importance  of  external  activities. 
There  is  no  unbalanced  subjectivity  in  the  ethic  of  Jesus.  He 
does  not  sever  the  root  from  the  flower:  in  the  flower,  which 
like  a  beautiful  censer  flings  its  incense  on  the  breeze,  Jesus 
sees  the  virtue  and  meaning  of  the  root-life,  and  He  remembers 
more  constantly  than  most  teachers  that  the  beauty  and  perfume 
of  the  bloom  are  drawn  from  the  hidden  root. 

7.  In  this  "  ordination  "  Discourse,  as  in  all  parts  of  Jesus' 
teaching,  there  is  traceable  the  enthusiasm  for  humanity  which 
did  so  much  to  give  shape  to  His  Ministry.  Neither  the  cloud 
of  flesh  nor  the  alienating  sin  in  man  could  hide  from  His  eyes 
the  real,  intrinsic  value  of  the  soul.  Jesus  speaks  as  though  the 
potentiality  of  Divine  Sonship  is  in  everyone:  by  voluntary  sur- 
render to  the  sovereignty  of  God  man  is  born  from  above  and  is 
made  a  conscious  subject  of  the  Heavenly  Kingdom.  And  Jesus 
sums  up  the  principle  of  community  life  in  the  Golden  Rule: 
"  All  then  that  you  would  have  men  do  to  you,  do  also  to  them 
yourselves ;  for  this  is  the  law  and  the  prophets."  Every  man  is 
to  be  treated  as  a  brother :  "  Why  look  at  the  splinter  in  thy 
brother's  eye,  and  mark  not  the  beam  in  thine  own  eye  ?  "  There 
is  the  note  of  timelessness  in  such  teaching;  it  belongs  equally  to 
every  age;  and  when  Kant,  our  great  Copernicus  of  modern 
thought,  came  to  express  the  fundamental  ethical  principle  of  his 
philosophy,  he  only  gave  a  variant  of  Christ's  great  saying:  "  So 
act  as  to  treat  humanity,  whether  in  thine  own  person  or  in  that 
of  any  other,  in  every  case  as  an  end  withal,  never  as  a  means 
only."    All  the  social  wrongs,  commercial  evils,  and  frightful  in- 


The  Ethic  of  Discipleship  163 

equalities  of  our  modern  states  will  be  remedied  only  through 
the  realization  of  this  principle  of  reciprocity.  In  private  life 
and  in  public  affairs,  in  domestic  duties  and  in  the  large  trans- 
actions of  commerce,  in  the  administration  of  civic  justice  and  in 
the  fulfilment  of  international  relations,  Christ's  principle  of 
brotherhood  needs  to  be  applied.  Inherent  in  the  Ideal  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  is  the  thought  of  the  "  common  good  "  unto  which 
all  our  egoisms  and  personal  interests  have  to  be  subjugated.  The 
teaching  of  Jesus  throws  into  bold  relief  and  perfect  equipoise 
the  two  contrasting  and  yet  complementary  ideals  of  perfect  per- 
sonality and  a  righteous  society — the  soul  and  the  Kingdom :  the 
individualism  inseparable  from  Christian  ethics  is  bound  up  with 
a  thoroughgoing  collectivism.  It  is  an  instance  of  reckless  con- 
fusion to  identify  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  with  modern  schemes 
of  socialism ;  but,  in  making  this  necessary  distinction,  it  may  not 
be  overlooked  that  Jesus  gave  to  the  world  the  ultimate  ideal 
and  goal  of  all  social  progress.  But  before  we  make  attempts  to 
adopt  the  outward  forms  of  Brotherhood  in  a  universal  republic 
and  in  vast  cooperative  schemes  of  economic  life,  there  must  be 
a  larger  realization  of  the  Spirit  of  Jesus,  and  a  fuller,  in- 
ward and  individual  surrender  to  his  authority.  In  view  of 
the  great  drift  of  modern  thought  and  movements  toward 
modified  forms  of  socialism,  it  is  of  utmost  importance  that 
Christians  should  acknowledge  the  ultimacy  and  relevance  of 
the  Ideals  of  Jesus  concerning  the  individual  and  the  Kingdom, 
and  also  the  fact  that  reconstructions  of  society  must  derive  from 
His  perfect  religion  their  motive  and  dynamic.  Unless  the  lead- 
ers of  social  reform  find  in  Jesus  their  ideal  and  inspiration,  they 
will  only  bring  about  costly  and  futile  revolutions,  and  instead 
of  terminating  economic  tyrannies,  industrial  wars  and  con- 
ditions of  slavery,  they  will  but  substitute  one  class  of  oppressors 
for  another. 

8.  But  while  we  advocate  the  most  extended  application  of 
the  principles  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  it  is  well  to  emphasize 
yet  again  that  it  was  spoken  primarily  to  the  disciples ;  and  there 
can  be  no  question  concerning  the  practicableness  of  the  Ideal  or 
the  applicability  of  the  principles  of  this  teaching  among  those 
who  acknowledge  the  Lordship  of  Jesus.  As  if  He  had  modelled 
His  discourse  upon  the  exhortations  and  comminations  of  Deu- 
teronomy, Jesus  concluded  His  teaching  on  the  Hill  with  an  im- 


164  The  School  of  Jesus 

pressive  warning :  there  are  two  ways,  the  narrow  and  the  broad, 
leading  to  life  and  death,  and  men  must  choose  where  they  will 
walk.  The  Divine  judgement  of  men  will  be  determined,  not  by 
their  words,  but  by  their  deeds.  The  lives  and  destinies  of  those 
who  receive  the  words  of  Jesus  as  their  chart,  and  of  those  who 
deliberately  reject  them,  are  represented  in  the  parable  of  the 
two  buildings  that  were  tested  by  storm.  The  epilogue  leaves 
no  hearer  in  doubt  that  Jesus  enunciated  His  sublime  ideal  for 
the  guidance  of  all  who  desire  to  become  His  disciples.  Precious, 
indeed,  have  been  these  great  "  sayings  "  to  the  churches  through- 
out the  centuries,  recalling  men  again  and  again  from  distorted 
forms  of  ecclesiasticism  and  orthodoxy  to  the  ethic  of  grace  and 
truth. 

9.  Our  treatment  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  though  pro- 
fessing to  be  brief  and  fragmentary,  must  direct  attention  to  the 
vital  relation  of  the  Speaker  to  His  words.  We  have  shown  the 
theological  basis  of  Christ's  ethics,  and  now  account  must  be 
taken  of  the  Teacher's  personal  integer.  The  Ideal  we  have 
sought  to  understand  is  but  the  transcript  of  the  pure  and  lofty 
soul  of  Jesus  Himself.  In  Him  the  Ideal  had  become  the  Real ; 
knowledge  and  being  in  His  experience  were  one ;  He  knew 
the  Truth  and  lived  it;  His  conscience  was  pure  and  His 
vision  clear.  The  intenser  the  light  the  darker  will  be  the 
shadows  thrown  by  aught  that  obstructs  it;  since,  then,  the 
radiant  whiteness  of  Christ's  Ideal  casts  no  shadow  of  confession 
of  personal  guilt,  there  must  be  attributed  to  Him  a  unique,  moral 
inerrancy.  "  When  He  had  made  purification  of  sins,  [He]  sat 
down  on  the  right  hand  of  the  majesty  on  high ;  having  become  by 
so  much  better  than  angels,  as  He  hath  inherited  a  more  excellent 
name  than  they."  There  is  a  partial  truthfulness  in  the  opinion 
that  men  of  all  moral  religions  might  adopt  the  ethics  of  Jesus 
without  abandoning  their  adherence  to  Buddhism  or  to  Moham- 
medanism ;  but  this  is  not  wholly  correct.  Many  of  the  logia  of 
Jesus  bear  the  stamp  of  universality;  they  are  self-authenticating: 
thought  has  been  precipitated  in  perfect  speech,  so  that  even  in 
repeated  translation  they  retain  some  inimitable  quality  of  genius 
and  an  exquisite  freshness.  There  are  sayings  which  must  have 
survived  all  the  disintegrating  forces  of  time  by  reason  of  an 
inherent  imperishability — such,  for  example,  as  "  Consider  the 
lilies  of  the  field,  how  they  grow!  they  toil  not,  neither  do  they 


The  Ethic  of  Discipleship  165 

spin:  yet,  I  tell  you,  even  Solomon  in  all  his  grandeur  was  not 
robed  like  one  of  these."  And  yet  for  the  most  part  we  trace 
the  motive  for  the  transmission  of  the  words  of  Jesus  to  the 
attachment  of  His  disciples  for  Him.  Since  the  Master  did 
not  write  His  discourses,  they  would  gradually  have  passed 
from  men's  memories,  had  not  the  soul-compelling  faith  in  His 
Person  made  men  eager  to  record  His  words  and  acts.  It  was  the 
faith  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  John  that  gave  an  adequate  motive  for 
recording  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  St.  John,  indeed,  has  given 
no  place  for  this  discourse;  and  further,  the  addresses  of  Jesus 
in  the  Fourth  Gospel  have  been  so  tinctured  with  the  Evangelist's 
mind  that  they  bear  little  resemblance  to  the  crystalline  sayings  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  And  yet  it  is  only  when  we  adopt 
the  apostolic  point  of  view  of  St.  John,  that  Jesus  Himself  is 
the  Truth,  that  we  begin  to  appreciate  the  full  beauty  and 
cogency  of  this  "  ordination  "  Discourse. 

10.  The  contrast  is  sometimes  made  between  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  and  the  orthodox  creeds ;  this  signifies  that  the  ethics 
of  the  Gospel  are  preferred  to  doctrines  of  theology,  that  morals 
count  for  more  than  faith.  Such  a  dialectic,  however,  is  due  to 
lack  of  lucidity.  H  our  account  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  be 
correct,  there  can  be  no  real  separation  between  faith  in  Jesus 
and  the  following  of  His  teaching.  The  creeds  are  historic  sym- 
bols which  resulted  from  the  struggle  of  early  Christians  to  hold 
the  totality  and  proportion  of  the  Revelation  of  God  in  Jesus. 
When  we  deal  with  ultimate  values,  we  discover  that  persons 
count  more  than  thoughts ;  the  chief  wealth  of  ideas  lies  in  their 
disclosure  of  the  conceiving  mind.  The  Truth  of  revelation  is  not 
a  system  of  abstract  reasoning,  but  the  relationship  of  actual 
Persons:  science  is  an  attempt,  more  or  less  successful,  to  inter- 
pret the  symbols  by  which  the  Creator  communicates  with  His 
creatures  and  His  children.  While  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
preserves  the  words  of  Jesus,  the  Lord  Himself  is  the  "  Word  "  of 
Supreme  value.  The  true  secret  of  the  Mountain  Discourse  lies 
not  in  the  ethical  altitude  or  literary  beauty  of  detached  sayings, 
but  in  the  Speaker's  own  Personality.  The  authority  of  the  ethic 
of  Jesus  is  not  that  of  abstract  reasoning :  it  is  personal ;  through- 
out the  Sermon,  He  places  Himself  in  the  midst  of  His  teaching 
as  the  chief  motive  of  the  righteous  life  in  the  theocracy.  Jesus 
definitely  claimed  to  speak  as  the  Fulfiller  of  the  Law  and  the 


166  The  School  of  Jesus 

Prophets.  The  truths  of  the  moral  universe  passed  through 
His  life  with  self -convicting  authority;  He  realized  them  livingly. 
Over  against  the  authority  of  the  Decalogue,  Jesus  uses  the 
antithesis,  "  But  I  say  unto  you."  We  observe  that  the  Beatitude 
of  the  Persecuted  turns  upon  the  sufferer's  attitude  to  Jesus;  if 
he  submits  "for  His  sake,"  then  shall  he  rejoice.  This  recalls  the 
Old  Testament  disclosure  of  God's  motive  for  self -revelation  and 
redemption  in  Israel — "for  mine  own  sake"  {''T^^)}  Behind 

the  phrase  lies  the  living  character ;  God  could  act  no  otherwise 
since  He  is  what  He  is.  It  was  no  accident  that  led  Jesus  to 
use  this  very  phrase  to  define  the  motive  of  discipleship  in  the 
Kingdom.  He  declared  Himself  to  be  man's  Final  Judge: 
"  Many  will  say  to  Me  in  that  day,  Lord,  Lord  .  .  .  And  then 
I  will  profess  unto  them,  I  never  knew  you :  depart  from  Me,  ye 
that  work  iniquity."  ^  Behind  the  Sermon  was  the  Teacher's 
life;  and,  while  His  words  contained  much  of  highest  moment, 
the  most  determinative  thing  for  the  disciples  lay  in  the  impact 
upon  their  minds  of  Christ's  regal,  authoritative  Personality.  In 
a  previous  chapter,  we  found  a  ground  of  credibiHty  for  His 
miracles  in  our  impression  of  His  Person:  so  now  we  reach  the 
position  that  His  ethical  teaching  demands  to  be  interpreted  in 
the  light  of  His  Person,  and  can  only  be  applied  through  the 
dynamic  of  an  enthusiasm  created  in  the  soul  by  His  personal 
influence.  His  works  and  words  alike  are  but  the  outshining  of 
the  Truth  and  Grace  that  were  embodied  in  His  Spirit. 

*  Isa.  xliii.  25 ;  Jer.  xiv.  21 ;  Ezek.  xx.  9,  14,  22. 
2  Matt.  vii.  22,  23. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   TRAINING   OF   EVANGELISTS    IN    TWO 
MISSIONS 

I.  The  training  and  equipment  of  the  Twelve  constituted  one 
of  the  primary  motives  of  our  Lord's  ministry.  Beyond  this 
inner  circle,  which  was  destined  to  become  the  Apostolate,  were 
other  adherents  to  whom  the  name  "  disciples  "  could  be  applied 
only  in  a  much  looser  way :  they  believed  in  some  manner  that 
Jesus  was  the  Christ  sent  of  God  to  establish  the  Heavenly 
Kingdom;  and  the  Master  sought  to  make  even  their  faith 
instrumental  in  propagating  His  Evangel.  Outside  of  this  com- 
pany of  "  believers "  were  the  mixed  multitudes  from  whom 
fresh  converts  were  drawn  from  time  to  time.  At  the  beginning 
of  His  public  work,  our  Lord  necessarily  made  His  appeals  to 
the  miscellaneous  groups  who  gathered,  wherever  He  went,  to 
see  His  miracles  and  listen  to  His  interesting  discourses.  It 
was  during  the  initiatory  evangelization  of  the  multitudes  that 
Jesus  planned  and  executed  His  synagogue  visitation;  and  this 
was  followed  by  attempts  to  reach  the  people  of  ill-repute,^  the 
irreligious  and  excommunicated,  for  which  purpose  Matthew 
appears  to  have  been  chosen.  As  the  weeks  and  months  passed 
by,  the  audiences  that  gathered  wherever  Jesus  went  were  sifted 
and  divided;  the  professional  classes  passed  into  incipient  hos- 
tility; crowds  wavered  and  waited  to  follow  the  most  profitable 
course  that  might  open ;  but  in  every  congregation  there  appeared 
a  circle  of  really  attached  friends,  who  sought  every  opportunity 
of  hearing  Him  whom  they  had  come  to  regard  as  Messiah; 
and  at  the  heart  of  this  little  company  of  friends  was  a  limited 
number  of  earnest  disciples  from  whom  Jesus  ultimately  cnose 
His  Twelve  Apostles.  The  ordination  of  these  men  marked  a 
distinct  change  in  the  character  of  His  ministry.  He  still  felt 
a  great,  tender  pity  for  the  people :  "  When  He  saw  the  multi- 
tudes. He  was  moved  with  compassion  for  them,  because  they 
were  distressed  and  scattered  as  sheep  having  no  shepherd." 
*  Dr.  Bruce,  With  Open  Face,  p.  112. 
167 


168  The  School  of  Jesus 

Yet  He  could  not  fail  to  see  that  the  itinerant  evangelization  of 
Galilee  had  been  attended  by  comparatively  meagre  results,  and, 
lamenting  the  impenitence  of  the  people.  He  foretold  the  coming 
destruction  of  their  national  life  and  their  dispersion.     To  com- 
plete our  mental  picture  of  Jesus'  ministry  during  this  itineration, 
we  must  conceive  of  Him  as  dependent  upon  the  charity  of 
friends: — a  band  of  faithful  women,  in  particular,  served  Him 
in  regard  to  His  temporal  wants.^     At  times  Jesus  gave  utter- 
ance to  His  longing  for  labourers,  and  urged  His  hearers  to  pray 
God  to  thrust  out  reapers  into  the  harvest  field.*     Hence  it  came 
about  that  the  Master  withdrew  Himself  more  and  more  from 
the  popular  and  indefinite  role  of  the  Preacher,  in  order  that 
He  might  become  the  Teacher  of  definite  disciples.     He  would 
take  His  apostolate  of  Twelve  and  a  few  other  ardent  adherents 
into  desert  places,   climb  the   mountains  with  them,   or  make 
sudden   excursions   across   the   lake,   so  that  they   might  have 
opportunities   of   receiving   the    fuller   instruction   He   had   for 
them.     This  narrowing  of  His  sphere  of  work  and  concentra- 
tion upon  the  task  of  training  His  disciples  aflford  an  object 
lesson  to  the  Church.     Society  is  like  a  great  pyramid,  broad 
at  the  base,  but,   as  we   ascend  the  higher  planes   of  life,   it 
becomes  narrrower  and  yet  more  narrow ;  the  intellectual  and 
ethically   cultivated   are    comparatively    few,    and   at   the   apex 
is  the  Church,  the  most  highly  organized  society  of  the  spiritual 
friends  of  Jesus.     Those  who  stand  at  the  highest  point  are 
few  in  number;  they  exist,  however,  as  mediators  of  the  new 
life    for    all:    it    is    no    weakness    to    be    numerically    small, 
since,  from  that  point  of  contact  with  Christ,  currents  of  life 
are    communicated    down    through    all    the    planes,    and    the 
whole    body    of    humanity    is    plenished    from    its    moral    and 
spiritual   apex.     Jesus    saw   plainly   that   a    small,    elect,   well- 
instructed,    profoundly    attached    company    of    disciples    might 
be    launched    as    the    apostolate    of    Universal    Religion,    and 
might  mediatorially  accomplish  the  world-wide  diffusion  of  the 
Faith. 

2.  The  discipline  of  the  disciples  was  not  exclusively  a  mat- 
ter of  mental  instruction;  the  knowledge  Jesus  imparted  was  of 
that  moral  and  spiritual  order  which  can  be  mastered  in  action 

*Luke  viii.  1-3;  ix.  7-9;  Mark  vi.  14,  16. 
•Matt.  ix.  35,  38;  Luke  x.  2. 


The  Training  of  Evangelists  169 

only.  Those  men  were  not  trained  as  thinkers;  they  were  to 
be  agents  of  a  Universal  Evangelism ;  they  had  to  receive,  under- 
stand and  communicate  a  message  from  God,  and  they  were  also 
to  embody  that  message  in  a  new  fellowship.  The  aim  of  Jesus 
was  to  stamp  each  one  of  them  with  His  own  mind,  to  project 
His  spirit  into  their  souls,  so  that  when  He  was  withdrawn  from 
visible,  fleshly  association  with  men  they  might  carry  forward 
the  establishment  of  the  Reign  of  God.  There  was  no  academic 
remoteness  in  the  methods  of  Jesus ;  He  knew  that  the  best  school 
is  that  wherein  men  may  practise  what  they  learn.  The  Twelve 
could  never  become  apostles  by  merely  listening;  having  learned 
somewhat  of  Him,  they  must  begin  to  teach.  Jesus  kept  in  view 
not  only  the  evangelization  of  the  masses,  but  also  the  adequate 
discipline  of  the  evangelists.  He  was  seeking  to  train  these  men 
for  the  future,  and  at  the  same  time  to  give  to  Galilee  another 
opportunity  of  acknowledging  Him  as  the  Messiah.  It  seems 
natural  to  suppose  that  the  Mission  of  the  Twelve  in  Galilee 
must  have  taken  place  toward  the  end  of  the  Personal  Ministry 
of  Jesus  in  that  province,  although  Weiss  imagines  it  to  have 
been  before  He  visited  the  capital  at  the  unnamed  feast.  Only 
a  tentative  account  can  be  given  of  the  sequence  of  events;  still 
it  seems  probable  that  the  Mission  of  the  Twelve  took  place 
at  the  termination  of  Christ's  third  visit  to  Galilee,  at  the  time 
when  the  avowed  hostility  of  Scribes  and  Pharisees  and  the 
aroused  interest  of  the  dangerous  Herod  made  it  imperative 
that  Jesus  should  avoid  a  premature  ending  of  His  life.  The 
topical  affinities  of  the  subject  of  the  Mission  of  the  Twelve, 
however,  justify  our  anticipation  of  events  and  the  displacement 
of  an  outstanding  incident  such  as  the  Lord's  celebration  of  the 
unnamed  feast.  We  may  imaginatively  insert  in  this  strenuous 
ministry  of  miracles  and  preaching  in  Galilee,  as  occurring  before 
the  Twelve  were  sent  forth,  the  deliverance  of  the  seaside  Dis- 
course of  the  parables,  the  calming  of  the  storm  on  the  Lake, 
the  healing  of  the  demoniac,  the  cure  of  the  woman  suffering 
from  an  issue  of  blood,  and  the  restoration  of  Jairus'  daughter.^ 
The  fresh  remembrance  of  this  remarkable  ministry  would  give 
the  needed  background  for  the  Message  of  the  Kingdom  of  God 
which  the  Twelve  were  now  commissioned  to  carry  through 
Galilee. 

*Luke  viii.  1-3;  Mark  iv.  1-34;  Matt,  xiii.;  Mark  iv.  35ff.;  Luke  viii. 

22-39- 


170  The  School  of  Jesus 

3.  An  important  question  must  now  be  raised  as  to  there 
having  been  one  mission  or  two;  whether,  besides  the  Twelve, 
Jesus  also  sent  forth  the  Seventy.  St.  Luke  alone  has  preserved 
an  account  of  two  distinct  missions.  The  silence  of  the  earlier 
evangelists  concerning  the  tour  of  the  Seventy  has  prompted 
the  suggestion  that  "  the  good  doctor  "  confused  various  reports 
of  one  mission,  and  made  mistaken  inferences.  The  reasons  for 
such  an  error  were,  first,  the  different  order  of  sequence  in  his 
apostolic  sources,  and  the  extended  record  of  logia  in  St.  Mat- 
thew's Gospel  ^  relating  to  the  mission  without  any  parallel  or 
duplicate  in  St.  Mark.  Some  critics  do  not  hesitate  to  attribute 
the  typical  number  of  seventy  to  St.  Luke's  universalism,  of 
which  that  number  is  a  symbol.  But  I  confess  it  is  most  difficult 
for  a  moderate  judgement  to  acquiesce  readily  in  the  surmise 
that  St.  Luke,  whom  Sir  William  Ramsay  places  among  the 
historians  of  first  rank,  should  have  indulged  in  fabulous  inven- 
tions in  the  interests  of  his  symbolism.  Further,  acquaintance 
with  the  mission  field  prohibits  one  from  treating  as  traditional 
reduplications  all  resemblances  in  a  narrative  full  of  incident. 
While  we  do  not  feel  it  incumbent  upon  us  to  explain  all  the 
remarkable  omissions  from  the  Gospels,  we  may  recall  the  frag- 
mentary character  of  these  compilations,  and  at  the  same  time 
venture  the  conjecture  that,  since  the  Twelve  were  actively  en- 
gaged in  Galilee  when  Jesus  sent  the  Seventy  into  Persea  and 
Judaea,  it  is  but  natural  that  the  two  Gospels  emanating  most 
directly  from  the  Apostolic  Circle  should  omit  the  account  of  a 
second  mission.  Correspondence  between  the  commission  and 
charges  relating  to  these  two  notable  enterprises  may  be  due  to 
natural  confusions;  for  we  know  St.  Matthew  never  hesitated 
to  group  the  logia  of  Jesus  according  to  their  topical  character- 
istics, though  he  knew  they  were  spoken  at  different  times ;  and 
there  is  nothing  improbable  in  the  speculation  that  Jesus  may 
have  repeated  to  the  Seventy  some  of  the  instructions  He  had 
given  to  the  Twelve. 

4.  Surprise  has  been  provoked  by  the  restriction  of  the  first 
apostolic  propagandism  to  Jewish  territory;  yet,  upon  reflection, 
even  in  this  may  be  discerned  the  sagacity  of  true  statesmanship. 
The  first  foundations  of  God's  new  Sovereignty  must  be  laid  in 
that  society  which  has  been  specially  trained ;  within  this  circum- 

*Matt.  X.  2-42;  Mark  vi.  7-13. 


The  Training  of  Evangelists  171 

scribed  area  must  be  found  the  fulcrum  whence  a  universal 
lifting  force  should  be  exerted  upon  mankind.  Had  Jesus 
straightway  sent  the  Apostles  into  the  highways  of  the  Gentile 
world,  the  diffusion  of  the  effort  would  have  slackened  its  in- 
tensity, and  the  result  would  have  been  nugatory.  Under  the 
guiding  Will  of  God,  Israel  had  become  the  mediator  of  monothe- 
ism for  the  nations ;  and  Jesus  now  sought  to  organize  a  spiritual 
Israel,  by  which  He  might  ultimately  win  a  world-wide  com- 
munity. If  we  adopt  St.  Luke's  narrative  of  the  second  mission 
as  historical,  then  Jesus  must  be  represented  as  planning  also 
the  evangelization  of  Samaria  and  of  the  people  of  the  province 
beyond  the  Jordan.  But  the  appointment  of  the  Seventy  was 
not  made  until  the  Feast  of  the  Tabernacles;  the  commissioning 
of  these  evangelists  may  have  spread  over  many  days,  Jesus 
sending  some  out  one  day,  and  another  band  of  men  later, 
repeating  His  instructions  to  the  several  groups.  That  there 
should  have  been  seventy  men  capable  and  willing  to  engage 
in  such  an  enterprise,  is  not  discordant  with  the  facts  recorded 
in  the  other  gospels.  Many  were  called  to  be  disciples  besides 
the  Twelve;  and  while  some  refused  the  high  vocation,  there 
were  probably  those  ready  to  accept  the  call.  We  must  avoid 
the  error  of  imaginatively  transferring  the  fixed  ecclesiastical 
orders  of  later  days  to  the  ministry  of  Jesus ;  besides  the  Twelve, 
there  were  many  who  attached  themselves  to  the  little  company 
of  disciples  for  a  time :  some  adherents  might  find  occasions  for 
following  Jesus  a  few  days  at  a  time,  and  then  return  to  their 
regular  avocations.  That  the  Master  found  a  band  of  loyal 
supporters  in  His  itinerations  might  be  inferred  from  the  fact 
that  there  were  a  hundred  and  twenty  who  companied  with  the 
Twelve,  and  so  were  accounted  eligible  for  nomination  to  take 
the  office  vacated  by  Judas  at  a  later  date.^  The  names  and 
characters  of  the  Seventy  are  not  recorded;  their  temper  and 
feeling  may  be  gauged,  however,  by  the  known  tests  that  Jesus 
addressed  to  other  candidates  for  the  discipleship.  St.  Matthew 
and  St.  Luke  record  the  Master's  feeling  of  the  urgent  need  of 
labourers,  and  the  figure  of  the  harvest  used  by  Him  indicates 
that  He  looked  upon  the  populace  as  ready  for  the  evangel  of 
God's  Reign.  While  His  own  Personal  Ministry  in  Galilee  had 
proved  disappointing,  He  did  not  abandon  His  quest  for  suitable 
disciples,  but,  wooing  His  followers  with  gracious  words  and 

*Acts  i.  15-26. 


172  The  School  of  Jesus 

acts,   He   sent    forth    such    as    were   worthy,   that   they   might 
cast  the  fire  of  a  great  love  upon  the  earth. 

5.  These  two  missions  constitute  important  stadia  in  the  Life 
of  Jesus,  although  it  is  most  difficult  to  supply  the  chronological 
connection.  We  imagine  that  having  sent  out  the  Twelve  two 
and  two,  Jesus  Himself  left  Galilee  and  passed  southward  toward 
Jerusalem.  To  us  it  appears  totally  inconsistent  with  the  under- 
lying purpose  of  such  a  mission  to  suppose,  as  Bishop  Ellicott 
did,  that  the  Twelve  returned  from  their  mission  "  not  more 
than  two  days  afterwards."  The  disciples  must  have  carried  on 
their  evangelism  not  for  a  few  days  merely,  but  for  many  weeks. 
Holding  to  our  conjecture  that  the  Mission  of  the  Twelve  was 
inaugurated  at  the  end  of  Christ's  third  visit  to  Galilee  after  His 
return  from  the  unnamed  feast.  He  being  conscious  of  dangers 
threatening  His  own  Person,  left  Galilee  and  went  to  Jerusalem 
for  the  Feast  of  the  Tabernacles.  From  the  capital  and  its 
neighbourhood,  Jesus  sent  out  the  Seventy  to  prepare  His  way 
in  the  towns  and  villages  of  Persea.  He  had  promised  the  Twelve 
that  they  "  should  not  have  gone  through  the  cities  of  Israel  till 
the  Son  of  Man  be  come  " ;  ^  this  may  be  interpreted  literally 
as  an  agreement  to  come  back  to  Galilee  after  a  few  weeks,  or 
it  may  be  treated  as  an  apocalyptic  utterance  to  be  fulfilled  only 
in  a  spiritual  manner.  Professor  Briggs  throws  out  the  sug- 
gestion that  Jesus  did  return  to  Galilee  and  met  the  various 
evangelists  at  different  places,  and  passing  from  group  to  group 
encouraged  them  in  their  mission.^  Such  traditional  fragments 
as  have  been  preserved  of  Christ's  Personal  Ministry  during 
these  weeks  may  be  found  imbedded  in  St.  John's  Jerusalem 
narrative  and  in  the  "  great  interpolation  "  of  St.  Luke's  gospel. 
The  very  confusion  of  chronology  may  result  in  part  from  the 
overlapping  of  events  and  the  widening  ramifications  of  this  new 
evangelism.  It  is  surely  a  mistake  to  attribute  the  movements 
of  Jesus  to  accident  or  chance;  the  progress  of  His  ministry, 
from  its  start  to  the  close,  was  marked  by  an  intelligent,  far- 
reaching  and  preconceived  plan.  See  how,  at  the  mid-point  of 
His  public  career,  emissaries  of  the  Messiah's  Kingdom  were 
contemporaneously  proceeding  throughout  Galilee,  Persea  and 
Judaea !  The  land  was  covered  with  a  network  of  evangelism ; 
while  Jesus  kept  constantly  in  touch  with  the  missioners,  passing 
'Matt.  X.  23.  ^New  Light  on  the  Life  of  Jesus,  p.  35. 


The  Training  of  Evangelists  173 

from  city  to  city,  maintaining  their  attachment  to  Himself  and 
heartening  them  in  their  toils.  Probably  most  readers  of  the 
Gospels  underestimate  the  amount  of  work  Jesus  accomplished 
in  a  few  months ;  the  plan  of  it  all  is  missed  in  the  abridged  and 
broken  records  that  have  survived.  But  as  it  dawns  upon  us 
what  it  meant  to  initiate  so  great  an  enterprise  as  the  establish- 
ment of  God's  Kingdom — to  encounter  the  serried  prejudices, 
unreasonable  misconceptions  and  hostile  conservatism,  and  yet 
in  spite  of  every  obstruction,  in  eighteen  months  to  fill  the  land 
with  messengers  of  a  Spiritual  Messianism — we  become  amazed 
that  even  Jesus  was  able  to  accomplish  so  much  in  so  short  a 
time.  Men  were  not  wholly  unprepared :  happily  every  age  has 
a  "  seed  "  or  "  remnant  "  who  wait  for  a  leader  and  are  ready  to 
respond  to  a  call  for  moral  heroism;  and  though  there  be  many 
who  slumber  when  the  clear  summons  rings  forth,  still  a  few 
will  be  found  who  catch  the  first  gleam  of  light  on  the  hill-tops, 
and  who  will  feel  in  their  souls  the  leap  of  nobler  aspiration  at 
the  lifting  up  of  the  Ideal  of  Jesus. 

6.  Uncertainties  concerning  time,  place  and  sequence  of  utter- 
ance ought  not  to  divert  attention  from  the  central  significance 
of  the  directions  Jesus  gave  alike  to  the  Twelve  and  the  Seventy. 
The  wonder  is  that  any  men  should  have  felt  prompted  to  follow 
a  life  of  altruistic  hardship.  The  secret  lay  in  the  spell  of  love 
by  which  Jesus  had  won  their  fealty.  For  His  name's  sake  they 
were  to  endure  the  hatred  of  men,  and  to  esteem  all  ties  of 
flesh  as  subordinate  to  the  bond  of  love  between  them  and  Him- 
self. Although  these  messengers  of  the  Reign  of  God  had  their 
own  cherished  ambitions  and  confused  fancies  of  thrones  and 
crowns,  still  the  chief  motive  in  their  mission  was  their  attachment 
to  Jesus.  He  baffled  their  natural  expectations  of  Messianic 
rule  and  brusquely  rebuked  their  materialism ;  yet  they  persisted 
in  connecting  Him  with  the  prophetic  hopes  of  their  nation,  and 
at  His  bidding  they  took  up  poverty  and  trial  as  burdens  to  be 
borne  for  Him.  There  were  others  who  fain  would  have  fol- 
lowed Him,  but  their  courage  was  not  equal  to  the  rigorous 
conditions  of  discipleship  laid  down  by  Jesus.  The  method  of 
the  Master  was  not  that  of  a  new  philosophy;  His  first  aim 
was  not  to  promulgate  a  system  of  ideas ;  His  religion  was  of 
being  and  doing,  and  was  not  sicklied  over  with  the  pale  hue 
of  intellectualism :  yet  He  so  identified  Himself  with  "  the  Truth," 


174  The  School  of  Jesus 

that  He  could  without  egoism  call  men  in  His  own  name,  and 
then  launch  them  forth  as  ambassadors  of  the  Reign  of  God. 
He  was  the  avatar  of  the  Heavenly  Ideal,  and  at  His  bidding 
common  men  accepted  the  discipline  and  restraint  of  a  spiritual 
militarism ;  and  not  all  at  once,  but  gradually,  they  were  trans- 
formed by  Him  into  heroes  of  faith. 

7.  The  ethical  spirit  pervading  Christ's  instructions  to  these 
first  Christian  missionaries  is  identical  with  that  with  which 
Gautama  imbued  his  followers ;  but  in  their  message  and  equip- 
ment of  power  the  disciples  of  Jesus  are  far  removed  from  the 
pessimism  of  Buddhism.  How  quaint  the  simplicity  of  these 
men  who  were  commissioned  to  announce  the  Kingdom  of  God ! 
They  were  to  make  no  preparation  for  their  journey — to  take 
nothing  save  a  staff;  or,  as  St.  Luke  says,  not  even  a  staff — 
no  bread,  no  wallet,  no  money,  no  other  coat  than  the  one  they 
were  wearing,  and  only  one  pair  of  sandals.  They  were  to  be 
characterized  by  absolute  simplicity.  Upon  entering  a  city  they 
were  to  seek  no  luxurious  abode,  but  only  hospitality;  and  when 
invited  to  a  home,  they  were  to  salute  their  hosts  with  the  simple 
formula,  "  Peace  be  to  this  house !  "  They  were  to  act  upon  the 
principle  that  the  labourer  is  worthy  of  his  hire,  and  they  were 
to  rely  upon  the  good-will  of  those  who  received  their  evangel. 
The  Life  of  Jesus  was  their  pattern.  But  they  were  to  cherish 
no  illusions:  their  message  would  act  upon  society  as  a  fire  and 
a  sword ;  fierce  opposition  would  be  aroused,  yet  they  were  to  be 
as  fearless  as  good  soldiers  in  the  fight,  and  as  wise  as  serpents 
and  harmless  as  doves.  The  children  of  peace  will  welcome  the 
heralds  of  the  Kingdom;  but  the  sons  of  strife  will  tear  them 
as  ravening  wolves.  Those  evangelists  had  but  a  meagre  equip- 
ment; they  were  without  erudition  and  social  influence;  their 
chief  qualification  was  that  they  knew,  believed  in,  and  loved 
the  Lord  Jesus.  Dr.  Sanday  says,  "  They  were  not  to  attempt 
to  teach  .  .  .  but  the  announcement  which  they  were  to  make 
by  word  of  mouth  was  limited  to  the  one  formula  with  which 
both  John  and  Jesus  had  begun :  '  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is 
at  hand.'  "  ^  The  declaration  of  this  evangel,  however,  must 
have  necessarily  provoked  inquiries,  and  the  message  would  ex- 
pand into  a  testimony  of  what  things  they  had  seen  and  heard 
of  Jesus.     Even  at  this  early  date,  there  must  have  begun  to 

*  Matt.  X.  7. 


The  Training  of  Evangelists  175 

flow  a  stream  of  tradition  concerning  Jesus  which  would  mingle 
with  the  memories  of  thousands  of  listeners.  And  so  these  two 
missions  created  a  crucial  test  of  Israel's  moral  fitness  to  receive 
the  new  Kingdom,  and  Jesus  charged  His  disciples  to  shake  the 
dust  of  those  cities  that  rejected  them  from  their  sandals  as  a 
symbol  of  Divine  disapproval :  this  was  the  action  of  no  personal 
pique  or  petty  spleen,  but  a  solemn  protest  against  those  who 
made  "  the  great  refusal." 

8.  Having  detached  His  disciples  from  all  material  aids  and 
external  comforts,  Jesus  proceeded  to  invest  them  with  the 
charismata  of  His  spiritual  Messianism,  charging  them  to  heal 
the  sick,  cleanse  the  lepers  and  cast  out  demons.  Although  the 
commission  to  raise  the  dead  in  St.  Matthew  is  found  in  the  best 
codices,  we  think  it  must  have  been  an  early  gloss,  since  it  does 
not  seem  likely  that  the  Master  would  delegate  such  a  stupendous 
power  to  immature  disciples.  We  understand  but  little  of  the 
thaumaturgy  of  the  New  Testament;  that  it  was  morally  con- 
ditioned and  depended  upon  the  exercise  of  faith  is  definitely 
stated.  It  is  widely  felt  today,  however,  that  we  live  on  the 
bounds  of  a  wonder-realm,  which  remains  untraversed  save  by  a 
few  lonely  pilgrims.  It  is  irrefutable  that  the  first  propaganda 
of  the  Religion  of  Jesus  was  accompanied  by  preternatural  phe- 
nomena and  faith-healing,  and  the  Lord  Himself  explicitly 
affirmed  that  the  exorcism  of  evil  spirits  was  a  sign  that  the 
Kingdom  had  come  nigh.  St.  Mark  records  that  the  Twelve 
executed  their  commission,  preaching  that  men  should  repent, 
casting  out  devils  and  healing  the  diseased.  While  St.  Matthew 
accentuates  the  healing  ministry  of  this  evangelism,  the  emphasis 
of  Jesus  fell  upon  preaching:  "As  ye  go,  preach."  The  dis- 
ciples thus  passed  from  the  school  to  the  great  laboratory  of  the 
world.  If  it  be  that  they  but  half-understood  their  own  message, 
still  the  recital  of  their  beloved  Master's  teaching  and  example 
would  correct  the  materialism  stirred  by  the  watchword  of  the 
theocracy.  No  record  remains  of  the  results  achieved  by  the 
itineration  of  the  Twelve ;  but  it  is  stated  that  the  Seventy  re- 
turned from  their  mission  elated  and  excited  at  their  success. 

9.  The  study  of  this  passage  of  evangelic  history  throws  a 
flood  of  light  upon  the  early  propagandism  of  Christianity;  the 
motive  of  these  missionaries  was  enthusiasm  for  Jesus;  because 


176  The  School  of  Jesus 

of  the  impression  He  made  upon  them  the  most  rigorous  re- 
nunciation became  easy,  and  endurance  of  hardship  for  His  sake 
was  to  them  a  source  of  joy.  Their  message  implied  a  lofty 
spiritual  faith,  and  was  destined  to  work  out  into  the  organization 
of  a  new  society.  The  movement  was  initiatory  and  experi- 
mental, for  it  lacked  the  full-orbed  revelation  of  the  Divine 
Sacrifice  of  Jesus  Christ.  In  our  modern  applications  of  Christ's 
Charge  to  His  Missionaries,  we  must  discriminate  between  the 
abiding  Ideal  of  discipleship  and  the  letter  of  the  rule.  Although 
few  will  now  advocate  a  literal  imitation  of  the  external  life 
of  those  evangelists,  all  will  approve  every  reproduction  of  their 
absolute  sincerity  and  whole-hearted  love.  But  a  wrong  is  done 
to  the  ordinary  priests,  clergy  and  ministers  of  modern  churches 
by  identifying  them  with  the  apostles  and  disciples  of  that  first 
period,  since,  without  grave  qualifications,  no  one  can  reckon 
the  churches  of  Europe  and  America  as  identical  with  the  simple 
organization  of  that  earliest  society  of  the  followers  of  Jesus. 
Our  churches  have  evolved  from  that  protoplasmic  period  amid 
influences  and  conditions  only  partially  Christian,^  and  no  one 
supposes  that  they  are  based  unreservedly  upon  the  ideals  and 
principles  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  the  instructions  given 
to  the  Twelve  and  the  Seventy.  Very  few  of  the  ministers  of  the 
organized  churches  would  make  profession  of  complete  renuncia- 
tion; for  the  most  part,  they  cling  to  interests  and  ambitions 
that  are  natural  and  legitimate.  Still,  within  these  same  churches 
there  are  a  few  who  hear  and  obey  the  call  to  imitate  their 
Lord;  and  while  they  do  not  conform  in  every  detail  to  these 
missionary  instructions,  they  strive  to  embody  the  ideal  of  self- 
renunciation  :  they  bear  the  Cross  daily ;  their  lives  exhale  the 
aroma  of  complete  consecration,  and  they  are  the  salt  of  the 

*  "  When  the  Church  was  founded,  there  was  no  new  world  created,  as 
a  stage  for  Christians  to  act  upon.  They  were  still  to  be  men,  each  with 
a  different  face  and  figure  and  character.  .  .  .  Life  was  with  them  to  be 
no  poetical  dream,  but,  in  its  main  circumstances  and  conditions,  exactly 
as  commonplace,  as  real,  as  long,  as  each  of  us  finds  it.  Their  Christian 
principles  were  not  to  be  like  propositions  of  Euclid  or  legal  formulae, 
things  to  be  thought  of  by  themselves  and  paraded  on  certain  occasions ; 
but  they  were  to  work  in  and  under  the  everyday  realities  of  life,  high  and 
low ;  to  hide  themselves  in  all  feelings  and  actions,  to  possess  and  in- 
form character,  to  leaven  insensibly  whatever  stirs  and  warms  men's 
hearts.  They  were  not  meant  for  a  gala  robe,  but  for  a  working-day 
dress,  and  that  for  no  fancy  labour,  but  for  the  rough  and  dusty  encoun- 
ters of  this  (outwardly)  very  matter-of-fact  and  unromantic  world."  R. 
W.  Church,  Essays  and  Reviews,  p.  i2of. 


The  Training  of  Evangelists  177 

earth  and  the  light  of  the  world.  We  have  seen  that  the  method 
of  Jesus  consisted  not  only  in  preaching  to  the  multitudes,  but  also 
in  calling  a  few  disciples  to  heroic  service,  and  imparting  to 
them  the  treasures  of  His  teaching.  Likewise,  in  this  age  of 
contrasting  luxury  and  need,  and  of  social  disintegrations  and 
reconstructions,  the  Lord's  summons  may  come  again  to  chosen 
individuals  to  give  up  everything  for  His  name's  sake.  For 
those  who  receive  no  such  call,  the  personal  problem  remains  to 
determine  how,  amid  life's  ordinary  routine,  one  may  inwardly 
realize  and  outwardly  exemplify  the  Spirit  of  Christ. 


BOOK  IV 

THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  CONFLICT  BETWEEN 
JESUS  AND  THE  HIERARCHY 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  EXAMINATION  AND  DEFENCE  OF  JESUS 

I.  In  St.  John's  Gospel,  the  events  and  discourses  of  Jesus' 
life  are  grouped  around  the  great  Jewish  feasts  which  occasioned 
several  of  the  recorded  visits  made  to  the  capital  by  Him  and 
His  disciples.  It  is,  however,  difficult  to  introduce  an  order  of 
sequence  and  connection  into  the  narrative  of  the  Fourth  Gos- 
pel ;  for  the  guiding  aim  of  the  writer  was  to  prove  and  illustrate 
the  sublime  thesis  of  the  new  faith  that  Jesus  was  the  Son  and 
Word  of  God;  and,  in  executing  this  task,  he  grouped  his 
materials  independently  of  chronology,  so  that  it  is  uncertain 
now  whether  he  may  not  have  referred  to  the  same  feasts  in 
the  various  parts  of  the  Gospel.  "  Can  we  be  sure,"  asks  Dr. 
Briggs,  "  that  the  three  Passovers  mentioned  were  all  different 
Passovers?  Can  we  be  sure  that  the  narrative  of  St.  John's 
Gospel  is  chronological?  Tatian  did  not  think  so,  for  he  puts 
the  cleansing  of  the  temple  and  the  interview  of  Jesus  with 
Nicodemus  at  the  last  Passover.  The  Synoptists  all  place  the 
cleansing  of  the  temple  at  the  last  Passover;  and  that  is,  for 
many  reasons,  the  most  probable  time  of  its  occurrence.  Jesus 
would  not  have  forced  the  issue  between  Himself  and  the  San- 
hedrim, at  the  beginning  of  His  Ministry  in  Jerusalem,  when, 
even  according  to  John,  He  prudently  postponed  the  crisis  as 
long  as  possible."  ^  If  there  be  such  doubt  about  the  Passover 
mentioned,  it  will  surprise  no  one  to  meet  with  endless  uncer- 
tainty concerning  the  undefined  feast  of  chapter  five.  It  has 
been  agreed  severally  that  this  festival  must  have  been  a  Passover, 
or  the  Pentecost,  or  the  Tabernacles :  yet,  further,  it  has  been 
identified  with  the  Day  of  Atonement,  also  with  the  Feast  of 
Dedication,  while  several  modern  scholars  believe  it  to  have 
been  the  Feast  of  Purim.  Dr.  Westcott  ^  has  found  in  the  dis- 
course "  a  remarkable  illustration  in  the  thoughts  of  the  Festival 
of  Trumpets."     At  this  feast  the  miraculous  giving  of  the  Law 

*  New  Light  on  the  Life  of  Jesus,  p.  53. 

2  John  V.  I,  3,  Additional  Notes,  p.  93. 

181 


182    The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

with  the  sound  of  the  trumpet  was  celebrated,  and  "on  this  day, 
according  to  a  very  early  Jewish  tradition,  God  holds  a  judge- 
ment of  men."  Whether  it  was  Purim  in  the  spring  (March) 
of  the  second  year  of  Christ's  Ministry,  or  in  the  autumn  (Sep- 
tember) at  the  Feast  of  Trumpets,  or  one  of  the  other  Jewish 
festivals,  does  not  affect  the  clear  evidence  that  the  cure  of  the 
impotent  man  at  the  Pool  of  Bethesda,  and  the  defence  of  this 
Sabbath  miracle,  constitute  a  great  crucial  moment  in  the  Mes- 
sianic Epiphany  of  Jesus.  It  was  the  beginning  of  a  struggle 
— a  struggle  between  Jesus  and  the  hierarchy  which  did  not 
close  till  it  culminated  in  the  tragedy  of  the  Cross. 

2.  The  unsolicited  miracle  on  the  Sabbath-day  at  Bethesda 
was  an  unmistakable  challenge  by  Jesus  of  the  pretensions  of  the 
hard,  superficial  religiosity  of  orthodox  Judaism.  It  is  un- 
doubtedly a  matter  of  surprise  to  us,  that  neither  Josephus  nor 
any  writer  of  New  Testament  times  has  mentioned  the  institution 
of  this  Pool  of  Healing,  with  its  preternatural  associations;  but 
then  readers  have  long  since  learned  that  the  silence  of  certain 
ancient  authors  cannot  be  treated  as  a  disproof  of  positive  state- 
ments found  in  others.  The  Fourth  Gospel  alone  records  this 
miracle ;  but  the  fact  that  St.  John  supplies  us  with  accounts  of 
so  many  trustworthy  incidents  does  somewhat  prepare  the  mind 
to  accept  narratives  of  which  he  is  the  sole  witness.  Of  miracles 
generally,  we  have  said  that  the  impression  of  Jesus  is  so  unique 
that  in  the  records  of  His  works  we  find  naught  incompatible 
with  His  character ;  and  in  regard  to  this  particular  miracle,  there 
seems  no  vestige  of  fictitious  invention.  At  Bethesda  Jesus 
appeared  as  the  Friend  of  diseased  humanity — as  one  commis- 
sioned by  God  to  heal  the  bodies  of  men,  and  so  make  manifest, 
even  in  the  physical  realm,  the  operation  of  God's  Sovereignty. 
But  while  the  incident  is  full  of  attractiveness  in  that  it  gives  a 
disclosure  of  the  native  benignancy  of  Jesus,  it  has  a  value  totally 
different  as  throwing  light  upon  His  attitude  toward  the  estab- 
lished religion.  With  great  boldness  He  repudiates  the  external 
formalism  of  Judaism,  and  boldly  affirms  by  His  action  an  in- 
dependence of  ceremonial  restraints.  Jesus  became  the  aggres- 
sor, and  deliberately  set  at  defiance  the  Sabbatarianism  of  the 
age.  There  was  no  urgency  in  this  man's  case ;  a  day's  delay 
would  have  mattered  little  to  one  who  had  suffered  thirty  and 
eight  years,  and  Jesus  might  have  promised  to  cure  him  after 


The  Examination  and  Defence  of  Jesus      183 

sunset  had  the  man  solicited  Him.  But  we  cannot  even  proffer 
the  man's  request  as  an  apology;  the  simple  fact  is,  that  Jesus 
was  in  the  habit  of  doing  these  things  on  the  Sabbath-day.  It 
appears  as  a  part  of  a  settled  plan ;  we  cannot  soften  the  aggres- 
sion by  treating  it  as  an  accident,  or  undesigned  breach  of  the 
law,  for  Jesus  was  only  repeating  in  Jerusalem  what  He  had 
deliberately  done  in  other  places.  From  the  many-sided  Min- 
istry of  Jesus,  it  is  easy  to  omit  some  important  feature ;  but  any 
such  omission  results  in  a  misconstruing  even  of  other  features 
which  are  acknowledged.  Many  there  have  been  who  delight 
in  the  gentleness  and  humility  that  drew  to  His  side  the  sinful 
and  sick  who  sought  forgiveness  and  healing;  but  they  seem  to 
forget  that  Jesus  was  strong  as  well  as  wise,  daring  as  well  as 
compassionate,  stern  as  truly  as  He  was  tender.  He  did  not 
shrink  from  making  public  protests  against  that  hard  spirit  in 
Judaism  which  menaced  the  noblest  instincts  of  humanity.  He 
shunned  all  false  compromises,  and  avoided  mixing  the  wine 
of  His  new  teaching  with  the  dogmatism  of  rabbinism.  Some 
teachers  there  are  who,  to  make  peace  with  well-known  preju- 
dices, mix  the  new  and  the  old;  but  Jesus  refused  to  dilute  His 
doctrines  by  any  infusion  of  accepted  error;  He  would  not 
tincture  the  white  light  of  His  ethical  teaching  with  the  hues 
of  popular  thought.  The  hardness  and  superficiality  of  legalism 
were  warping  the  better  mind  of  Israel ;  the  wells  of  humanity 
were  poisoned  by  an  ostentation  of  religious  ceremony  and  a 
scrupulosity  that  encouraged  hypocrisy.  Because  of  these  things, 
Jesus  chose  the  Sabbath-day  for  the  miracle  at  Bethesda,  and  then 
proceeded  to  accentuate  His  violation  of  the  Law  by  command- 
ing the  healed  man  to  take  up  his  pallet  and  carry  it  away. 
The  prophet  Jeremiah  had  said,^  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord ;  take 
heed  to  yourselves,  and  bear  no  burden  on  the  Sabbath-day,  nor 
bring  it  in  by  the  gates  of  Jerusalem;  neither  carry  forth  a 
burden  out  of  your  houses  on  the  Sabbath-day."  But  when  the 
deep,  true  religion  of  Israel  was  in  danger  of  being  obliterated 
by  materialism;  when  piety  was  menaced  by  pedantry,  and 
humane  feelings  were  trampled  upon  by  traditionalists  in  their 
worship  of  the  letter, — then  Jesus  asserted  authoritatively  the 
dignity  and  power  of  the  Son  of  Man  over  outward  rites  and 
temporary  symbols.  He  might  have  told  the  healed  man  to  wait 
till  the  Sabbath  was  past  before  he  carried  away  his  mattress; 

*  Jer.  xvii.  21,  22.  


184    The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

but  the  Lord  Jesus  deliberately  set  Himself  to  loosen  the  rigidity 
of  the  Sabbath  laws.  He  forced  Himself  upon  the  attention  of 
the  Sanhedrim  as  a  rival  authority :  hitherto  the  occasional  oppo- 
sition He  had  encountered  had  come  from  the  jealous  provincial 
rabbins ;  but  henceforth  He  was  to  be  subjected  to  the  sleepless 
espionage  and  dogged  by  the  relentless  hostility  of  the  highest 
religious  authority  of  the  capital  city. 

3.  Jesus'  visit  to  Jerusalem,  during  the  unnamed  feast,  con- 
stituted a  crisis  in  His  Ministry;  the  conflict  which  had  begun 
in  Galilee  was  now  transferred  to  Jerusalem.  At  this  period 
the  latent  prejudice  and  dislike  of  Jewish  officials  crystallized 
in  definite  hostility;  and  there  emerged  a  policy  of  antagonism 
which  had  for  its  goal  the  destruction  of  the  Son  of  God.  Such 
opposition  to  One  whom  posterity  has  vindicated  as  the  avatar 
of  moral  goodness,  and  whom  multitudes  have  worshipped  as 
divine, — an  opposition  pursued  by  men  who  were  patriots,  and 
represented  national  religion,  who  were  not  satisfied  till  Jesus 
was  crucified, — seems  at  times  almost  inexplicable;  so  that  an 
intelligible  account  of  its  origin  and  growth  is  difficult  to  attain. 
In  treating  of  problems  of  Divine  predestination  and  human  free- 
will in  relation  to  the  Crucifixion  of  Jesus,  the  mind  beats  its 
wings  against  the  iron  bars  of  the  universe,  and  we  come  at 
length  to  recognize  limitations  of  thought  which  no  finite  intel- 
lect can  overcome.  And  yet  it  ought  to  be  possible  to  present  a 
rational  account  of  the  history  of  the  conflict  between  the  author- 
ities of  Judaism  and  Jesus — to  discover  the  motives,  impulses 
and  plans  of  those  who  hounded  Him  to  death,  since  these  are 
the  phenomena  of  traceable  history.  The  stories  that  Xenophon 
and  Plato  tell  concerning  the  trial  and  death  of  Socrates  show 
how  conservative  and  narrow  men,  without  being  wicked,  may 
so  fear  the  disintegrating  influence  of  a  great  sage  upon  the 
community  that  they  come  at  last  to  look  upon  his  death  as  need- 
ful for  the  continuance  of  the  state.  The  official  representatives 
of  Judaism  were  men  of  patriotic  feeling,  and  observant  of  all 
the  strict  rules  of  their  religion ;  but  they  were  constitutionally 
unable  to  appreciate  the  free,  broad  humanity  of  Jesus,  who 
claimed  to  be  the  Christ.  Narrow  traditionalists  as  they  were, 
they  could  not  help  looking  with  suspicion  and  dislike  upon  the 
originality  and  spontaneity  of  the  Nazarene  Teacher :  then,  too, 
He  was  not  only  alien  in  temper  and  genius  from  themselves. 


The  Examination  and  Defence  of  Jesus      185 

but  He  deliberately  threatened  to  dissolve  the  institutions  of  their 
nation  and  the  privileges  of  the  ruling  class.  "  For  this  cause 
did  the  Jews  persecute  Jesus,  because  He  did  these  things  on 
the  Sabbath."  ^ 

4.  The  narrative  of  the  Bethesda  miracle  is  too  familiar  to 
be  recapitulated;  and  its  homiletic  purport  may  be  passed  by. 
We  may  pause,  however,  to  remark  upon  the  surprise  every 
reader  feels  that  the  healed  man  should  have  turned  informer; 
but  instead  of  attributing  this  act  to  malignancy  or  cowardice,  it 
may  be  supposed  that  its  latent  motive  and  aim  was  to  provide 
the  Healer  with  an  opportunity  of  defending  the  seeming  breach 
of  the  Sabbath,  and  so  to  make  allies  even  of  the  remonstrants 
themselves.  Passing  from  the  incident  to  the  discourse  which 
follows,  we  are  all  struck  by  the  total  contrast  it  affords  to  the 
form  of  Christ's  teaching  in  the  Synoptic  reports.  The  causes 
of  two  such  different  styles  of  address  may  have  been  in  part 
the  versatility  of  Jesus,  also  His  discrimination  of  differences  of 
mental  calibre  and  training  in  the  popular  audiences  of  Galilee 
and  the  professional  classes  of  Jerusalem ;  then,  too,  we  need 
not  fear  to  acknowledge  the  idiosyncrasies  and  distinctive  bias 
of  each  of  the  evangelists.  Although  Xenophon  gives  a  much 
plainer,  matter-of-fact  account  of  Socrates  than  Plato,  we  find 
substantial  historicity  and  congruity  in  both  writers.  Whether 
the  present  form  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  be  due  to  the  revision 
of  the  Johannine  tradition  by  one  versed  in  Alexandrian  philoso- 
phy, or  whether  it  be  the  peculiar  style  of  St.  John  himself,  the 
conviction  prevails  among  many  that  the  accounts  are  substan- 
tially genuine,  and  that  at  points  we  touch  imperishable  frag- 
ments of  the  Master's  speech — fragments  which,  boulder-like, 
have  refused  to  be  disintegrated  or  dissolved  in  the  molten  mass 
of  the  author's  brooding  thought.  There  is  no  fundamental, 
convincing  reason  against  the  general  Christian  belief  that  this 
profound,  theosophical  apologia  may  represent  one  of  the  poles 
of  Christ's  thought,  as  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  may  equally 
represent  another.  "  It  is  a  different  Christ  that  is  here  repre- 
sented, it  is  said.  But  this  is  a  difficulty  decisively  set  aside  by 
Christendom,  which  has  always  found  it  easy  to  form  one  con- 
sistent portrait  from  the  four  accounts."  ^  He  who,  according 
to  the  Synoptic  Gospels,  justified  the  exercise  of  a  beneficent 
*John  V.  16.  ^Dods,  The  Bible,  Its  Origin  and  Nature,  p.  187. 


186  The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy- 
humanity  on  the  Sabbath-day  by  recalling  the  incident  of  David's 
eating  the  shew-bread,  and  by  suggesting  the  analogy  of  pity's 
instinctive  impulse  to  lift  a  fallen  animal  out  of  a  pit,  to  a 
different  audience  might  well  have  drawn  a  parallel  between 
the  Heavenly  Father's  ceaseless  activity  during  the  Sabbath 
which  follows  the  ineffable  days  of  creation  and  His  own  healing 
ministry  on  earth. 

5.  The  momentous  significance  we  attach  to  the  inquiry  to 
which  Jesus  was  subjected  at  this  time  in  Jerusalem,  is  derived 
from  the  fact  that  it  was  the  first  authorized  and  authoritative 
investigation  into  His  conduct  and  claims.  His  inquisitors  be- 
longed to  the  privileged  Sanhedrim;  they  may  have  formed  a 
standing  committee  of  the  national  council,  and  the  occasion 
may  have  assumed  the  character  of  a  semi-formal  process  of 
examination.  It  was  no  casual,  incidental  dialogue  which  sprang 
up  unforeseen  and  passed  without  consequences ;  the  challenge 
flung  down  by  the  act  of  Jesus  was  taken  up  by  the  hierarchy 
officially,  and  followed  by  an  ecclesiastical  inquiry.  Our  feeling 
of  the  probability  that  this  view  is  correct  is  heightened  by  the 
harmony  and  illumination  such  an  hypothesis  introduces  into 
the  succeeding  months  of  Christ's  career.  Until  this  crisis,  it 
had  remained  an  open  possibility  that  He  might  win  the  approval 
and  sanction  of  the  central  authority  of  Israel;  for  the  San- 
hedrim had  looked  at  first  not  unsympathetically  upon  John  the 
Baptist,  and  had  even  sent  a  deputation  to  ask  if  he  were  the 
"  Coming  One."  It  could  not  be  ignored  that,  although  John 
disclaimed  all  such  pretensions  for  himself,  he  designated  Jesus 
as  the  Divinely  commissioned  man  to  establish  the  New  Kingdom. 
Those  officials  had  observed  the  ministry  of  Jesus  and  had 
slowly  apprehended  the  fact  that  there  was  something  in  the 
movement  initiated  that  could  never  be  grafted  into  Judaism; 
they  felt  that  Jesus  had  begun  a  spiritual  revolution,  and  to 
their  astonishment  He  came  even  to  Zion  itself  and  compelled 
widespread  attention  by  His  deliberate  performance  of  this 
miracle  of  healing  on  the  Sabbath.  The  Sanhedrim  could  not 
ignore  such  a  challenge,  and  they  exercised  their  political  and 
religious  prerogatives  to  demand  from  Jesus  some  explanation. 
In  this  fifth  chapter  of  St.  John,  therefore,  we  may  read  the 
defence  or  apologia  offered  by  Jesus  to  the  inquisitorial  com- 
mittee of  the  Sanhedrim.     The  occasion  constituted  not  only  a 


The  Examination  and  Defence  of  Jesus      187 

crisis  in  the  development  of  the  Ministry  of  Jesus,  but  a  great 
national  opportunity  in  the  providential  history  of  Israel.  Dr. 
Westcott  says,^  "  Now  the  conflict  begins  which  issues  in  the 
Passion.  Step  by  step  faith  and  unbelief  are  called  out  in  a 
parallel  development.  The  works  and  words  of  Christ  become  a 
power  for  the  revelation  of  men's  thoughts.  The  main  scene  of 
this  saddest  of  all  conceivable  tragedies  is  Jerusalem.  The  crises 
of  its  development  are  the  national  festivals.  And  the  whole 
controversy  is  gathered  round  three  miracles." 

6.  The  record  of  this  examination  is  marked  by  the  author's 
peculiarities  of  thought  and  expression;  the  gyrations  which 
belong  to  his  style  tend  to  conceal  the  successive  movements : 
hence,  one  is  apt  to  miss  the  unexpected  turns  of  dialogue  and 
subtle  transitions  of  thought,  especially  as  the  answers  of  Jesus 
are  preserved  without  the  particular  questions  that  evoked  them. 
But  even  in  this  inquiry,  Jesus  is  the  Master  of  His  interrogators ; 
He  leads  them  where  they  would  not  willingly  go,  and  transfers 
their  thought  from  the  externals  of  ecclesiasticism  to  the  realm 
of  faith  and  experimental  truth.  The  theme  is  not  capable  of 
facile  and  superficial  discussion ;  Jesus  moves  in  worlds  unreal- 
ized by  His  hearers,  and  His  words  are  pregnant  with  trans- 
cendent truths.  The  light  of  His  self-disclosure  prevents  us 
from  accepting  the  judgement  that  He  was  simply  a  socialist, 
born  before  the  age  was  ready  for  Him.  Such  a  representation 
is  no  more  true  than  that  which  turns  Him  into  "  the  high-priest 
of  property  and  smug  respectability."  In  our  consideration  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  of  the  commission  of  the  Twelve 
and  the  Seventy,  we  discovered  Christ's  distrust  of  wealth  and 
His  advocacy  of  a  simple  life  for  those  who  establish  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven ;  but  we  must  not  treat  half-truths  as  whole 
ones,  nor  emphasize  with  unbalanced  extravagance  merely  one 
phase  of  His  work  to  the  exclusion  of  other  parts.  Our  task 
is  to  seek  the  inmost  secret  of  His  life,  and  through  that  to 
comprehend  His  manifold  ministry,  although  such  a  que.^t  may 
lead  us  into  paths  of  thought  oft  discredited  by  those  who  are 
content  to  know  Jesus  as  a  great  revolutionist,  anarchist  or 
agitator.  In  an  investigation  of  His  work  conducted  by  the 
authorized  representatives  of  the  national  Jewish  religion,  Jesus 
might  justifiably  lay  bare  the  underlying  postulates  and  ultimate 
truths  of  His  relation  to  God  and  the  world. 

'■  Dr.  Westcott,  John's  Gospel,  chap,  v.,  Introductory  Note. 


188    The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

7.  The  examiners  of  Jesus  asked,  first  of  all,  by  what  author- 
ity He  annulled  the  old  Sabbatic  laws  and  traditions.  The  pass- 
ing breach  of  Sabbath  regulations  may  seem  a  trifling  and  flimsy 
pretext  for  the  malignant  opposition  henceforth  shown  towards 
Jesus;  but,  as  one  reflects  upon  the  integral  and  vital  nature 
of  the  Sabbatic  institution  in  Judaism,  it  becomes  clear  that  the 
hieratic  officials  did  not  overestimate  the  gravity  of  the  challenge 
ofifered  by  the  miracle  at  Bethesda.  Jesus  deliberately  aimed  a 
blow  at  the  elaborate  and  petty  puerilities  of  an  external  religion 
which  had  become  oppressive  to  humanity,  and  which  displaced 
the  first  principles  of  true  religion.  He  fought  for  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  spirit  of  man  from  the  thraldom  of  pedantic  legal- 
ism. Just  as,  on  the  Mount,  Jesus  had  set  forth  man's  righteous- 
ness as  the  imitation  of  Divine  philanthropy,  so  now,  in  reply  to 
His  questioners.  He  claims  that  His  own  works  are  modelled 
upon  the  ceaseless  ministry  of  the  Heavenly  Father.  But  this 
vindication  of  His  miracle  afforded  another  charge  against  Him 
— viz.  that  He  called  God  His  Father,  and  so  made  Himself  equal 
with  God.  The  horror  of  these  Sanhedrists  at  what  they  con- 
sidered His  blasphemy  only  led  Jesus  to  reiterate  His  Divine 
Sonship ; — not  as  common  to  all  men,  for  with  quiet  dignity  He 
enumerates  the  prerogatives  of  God  to  raise  the  dead,  to  impart 
life,  and  claims  that  like  powers  have  been  delegated  to  Himself. 
Judgement  of  men — a  function  of  the  old  theocratic  Kingship — 
has  been  committed  to  the  Son,  so  that  men  should  honour  Him 
as  they  do  the  Father.  To  refuse  to  honour  the  Son  is  to  with- 
hold that  tribute  from  God  who  sent  Him.  When  the  vastness 
and  solemnity  of  these  Messianic  pretensions  led  His  hearers  to 
murmur  their  scepticism  and  disapproval,  instead  of  abating  His 
high  claims,  Jesus  reaffirms  them  with  the  pendant  warning  that 
the  alternatives  of  external  life  and  a  judgement  of  condemna- 
tion hinge  upon  men's  acceptance  or  rejection  of  His  Revelation. 

8.  The  enunciation  at  this  point  of  Christ's  Ministry  of  a 
doctrine  of  the  Resurrection,  has  excited  a  suspicion  that  the 
hand  of  a  redactor  has  wrought  upon  the  apostolic  tradition, 
hardening  and  materializing  the  words  of  Jesus  into  a  narrow 
dogma  of  "  the  last  things."  Critics  of  this  school  imagine  that 
the  quickening  of  the  dead  referred  originally  to  the  moral  and 
spiritual  impulse  which  Jesus  was  conscious  of  imparting;  that 
the  figure  of  a  resuscitation  has  been  too  literally  interpreted  by 


The  Examination  and  Defence  of  Jesus      189 

minds  at  a  lower  plane  of  thought  than  that  occupied  by  Jesus. 
In  all  such  questions  as  these,  the  judgement  must  be  potently 
influenced  by  culture,  environment  and  mental  bias.  Experience 
teaches  us  that  it  is  as  difficult  to  refute  the  dogmas  of  ultra- 
spiritualism  as  those  of  materialism;  in  all  such  cases  the  appeal 
is  necessarily  subjective.  Those  who  approach  these  matters 
with  the  assumption  that  Jesus  differed  in  no  essential  way  from 
other  human  beings — that  He  was  Divine  only  as  all  men  are 
Sons  of  God — are  driven,  by  the  inherent  logic  of  their  premises, 
to  exclude  all  actions  and  attributes  that  could  not  be  exercised 
by  other  good  men.  Not  only  the  Jesus  of  St.  John,  but  also 
the  picture  of  Him  in  the  Synoptics,  must  be  adjudged  imaginary 
and  exaggerated  beyond  all  credence  by  those  who  consciously 
or  unconsciously  make  their  naturalistic  prejudices  the  standards 
of  criticism.  Our  only  answer  to  such  criticism  is  that  the  Jesus 
of  the  Gospels  cannot  be  reduced  to  such  dimensions  as  are  de- 
manded by  naturalism,  until  we  entirely  deny  the  trustworthi- 
ness of  the  only  writings  that  supply  the  materials  wherewith  a 
mental  picture  of  Him  can  be  formed.  Over  against  this  criticism 
of  antipathy  must  be  set  our  belief  that  even  in  the  Fourth 
Gospel  are  found  memories  which  could  have  come  only  from 
some  apostolic  witness.  There  are  sublime  affirmations  in  this 
narrative  of  His  trial  which  reverberate  in  the  moral  reason  as 
truth  alone  can  do.  It  did  not,  for  example,  lie  within  the  com- 
pass of  human  invention,  in  the  Primitive  Church,  to  suggest 
that  Divine  judgement  was  delegated  to  Jesus  because  He  was 
the  Son  of  Man.  Jesus  derived  His  authority  for  judging  men 
from  God  Himself,  and  asserts  that  His  aim  in  exercising  this 
Divine  prerogative  is  to  do  the  Will  of  God. 

9.  Those  incredulous  inquisitors  interrupted  Jesus  with  clam- 
orous demands  for  His  credentials,  and  scornfully  taunted  Him 
with  testifying  of  Himself.  At  length,  when  the  Babel  of  in- 
vective, doubt  and  menace  subsided,  the  Master  disclaimed  all 
desire  that  His  words  should  be  accepted  without  sufficient 
testimony.  He  reminded  them  of  their  deputation  to  John — 
that  burning  and  shining  lamp  around  which  they  had  swarmed 
like  moths  for  a  brief  while,  and  that  John  had  borne  witness 
of  Him  as  One  divinely  designated  for  a  great  work  in  Israel. 
Jesus  next  pointed  to  the  works  which  He  did — miracles  of  heal- 
ing and  moral  transformations :  these  were  evidences  that  the 


190    The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

Heavenly  Father  had  sent  Him.  As  for  Himself,  the  only  testi- 
mony that  is  valid  and  cogent  for  His  own  heart  is  that  which 
God  gives  Him  in  His  inmost  consciousness.  This  last  allusion 
to  evidence  so  intangible  as  that  of  an  inner  voice  of  the  Spirit 
excited  their  scorn,  and  they  retorted  that  they  had  neither  heard 
the  voice  of  God  nor  at  any  time  had  they  seen  His  form. 
This  Sadducean  jibe  was  treated  by  Jesus  as  the  confession  of 
spiritual  blindness  and  deafness,  and  this  defect  was  due  alone 
to  their  refusal  to  have  the  Word  of  God  dwelling  in  their  minds. 
Had  they  cherished  a  genuine  love  of  truth,  they  would  have 
been  morally  prepared  to  accept  Him  as  God's  sent  One.  When 
they  professed  to  prefer  the  oracles  of  eternal  life  in  the  Scrip- 
tures to  the  dubious  testimony  of  an  unauthorized  teacher,  Jesus 
replied  that  those  very  Scriptures  bore  witness  concerning  Him- 
self: He  was  the  eternal  Word;  the  historical  revelation  to 
Israel  led  up  to  God's  manifestation  in  His  Son.  "  All  this  re- 
vealing history,  with  the  varying  experience  of  God's  people 
under  His  hand,  and  the  various  redemption  institutions  which 
kept  alive  the  knowledge  of  God  already  won;  all  that  through 
which  God  made  His  presence  felt  and  His  attitude  known, 
prepared  for  and  culminated  in  the  consummate  revelation  made 
in  Christ."  ^  Finally,  Jesus  puts  His  examiners  upon  their  trial 
and  diagnoses  the  fatal  malady  of  their  souls.  Instead  of  being 
animated  by  sincere  love  of  God,  they  were  seeking  repute  and 
honour  from  men ;  the  perverting  blinding  mistake  of  their  lives 
was  worldliness.  Had  He  come  in  His  own  name,  using  the  meth- 
ods of  the  world,  they  would  have  received  Him ;  but  they  had  re- 
jected Him  because  He  came  in  the  name  of  His  Father.  It 
was  not  necessary,  however,  for  Jesus  to  accuse  them  of  un- 
belief; for  Moses  himself,  in  whom  they  so  ardently  professed 
to  believe,  was  their  accuser  before  God,  since  the  whole  trend  of 
revelation  from  the  great  Lawgiver  onward  had  converged  upon 
Jesus. 

lo.  This  examination  of  the  conduct  and  claims  of  the  Christ 
drew  forth  His  great  apologia,  which  is  charged  with  the  ideal- 
ism and  spirituality  of  the  perfect  Man.  We  can  only  testify 
that  such  knowledge  and  certainty  as  Jesus  manifested  appear 
to  us  as  founded  upon  the  direct  abiding  vision  of  His  Spirit. 
He  possessed  an  interior  and  lively  apprehension  of  the  realities 
'  Dr.  Dods,  The  Bible,  Its  Origin  and  Nature,  p.  77. 


The  Examination  and  Defence  of  Jesus      191 

of  the  Spirit :  the  words  of  Louis  de  Ponte  recur  to  the  mind 
as  we  think  of  Jesus :  "  As  the  body  has  its  five  exterior  senses 
with  which  it  perceives  the  visible  and  delectable  things  of  this 
life,  and  takes  experience  of  them,  so  the  Spirit,  with  its  faculties 
of  understanding  and  will,  has  five  interior  acts  proportionable 
to  these  senses,  .  .  .  with  which  it  perceives  the  invisible  and 
delectable  things  of  Almighty  God,  and  takes  experience  of  them ; 
from  which  springs  the  experimental  knowledge  of  God,  which 
incomparably  exceeds  all  the  knowledge  that  proceeds  of  our 
reasonings,  as  the  sweetness  of  honey  is  much  better  known  by 
tasting  a  little  of  it  than  by  using  much  reasoning  to  know  it."  ^ 
Too  often  in  man's  life  the  material  aspect  of  phenomena  shuts 
out  the  spiritual ;  but  the  earth  and  sky  were  translucent  to 
Jesus ;  He  saw  in  the  world  the  works  of  the  Heavenly  Father, 
whose  operations  never  cease ;  He  contemplated  God  sustaining 
the  universe  and  quickening  dead  things  into  living  forms.  There 
are  others  besides  Jesus  who  catch  glimpses  of  the  ultimate  ideal- 
ism of  our  world ;  but  the  sordid  selfishness,  the  commonplace 
traditions  and  the  dusky  impurity  of  our  hearts,  make  an  im- 
penetrable mask  which  hides  the  Divine  Presence.  Jesus,  the 
unique  Son  of  God,  lived  ever  in  perfect,  moral  harmony  and 
filial  intimacy  with  the  Father,  so  that  a  constant  ray  from  the 
Spiritual  Sun  smote  upon  His  inner  vision.  Beholding  so  clearly 
the  works  and  purposes  of  the  Father  Jesus  joyously  subordi- 
nated all  His  activities  to  the  Divine  Plan,  and  accounting  Him- 
self God's  executor  in  our  history,  He  pursued  a  double  mission — 
to  beget  in  men  the  higher  life  of  the  Spirit  and  to  judge  the 
world.  Jesus  avowed  that  His  authority  and  power  were  de- 
rivative, and  that  the  successive  steps  of  His  Ministry  were 
determined  by  His  intuitive  knowledge  of  the  Will  of  God. 
The  Life  of  Jesus  in  our  world  is  a  miniature  copy  of  the  Life 
of  God  in  the  universe.  He  sought  to  emancipate  men  from 
every  bondage,  whether  of  sin  or  of  religious  legalism,  and  to 
establish  in  every  life  the  autonomy  of  the  Spirit. 

II.  Apart  from  all  interpretations  of  this  Johannine  theosophy, 
as  some  term  it,  the  incident  of  this  miracle  and  examination 
of  Jesus  stands  out  in  His  Ministry  as  a  crucial  moment — the 
parting  of  ways.  The  future  attitude  of  the  hierarchy  toward 
Jesus  is  summed  up  by  the  Evangelist  as  an  intention  to  kill 

*  De  Ponte,  Meditations  on  the  Mysteries  of  the  Holy  Faith,  vol.  i.,  p.  59- 


192    The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

Him.  Henceforth,  the  conflict  between  Jesus  as  the  Messiah  of 
the  Spirit  and  the  rulers  of  Judaism  in  their  bondage  to  the 
letter  must  go  on  until  the  Cross  is  reached.  Jesus  may  have 
won  some  secret  friends  in  the  Sanhedrim,  but  they  were  too 
few  to  affect  materially  the  course  of  the  conflict.  At  a  pre- 
liminary examination,  the  authorities  could  only  warn  Him  against 
the  dangerous  issues  of  His  Ministry;  but  in  their  minds  a 
silent  judgement  was  pronounced  against  Him  with  a  determina- 
tion to  bring  about  His  death.  The  only  way  for  Jesus  to  escape 
such  a  doom  was  by  compromise  or  by  the  surrender  of  His 
Messianic  pretensions ;  but  neither  alternative  could  He  adopt. 
History  has  taken  up  the  judgement  of  the  Sanhedrim  upon  Jesus, 
and  the  hostility  meted  out  to  Him  is  the  severest  sentence  of  con- 
demnation ever  passed  upon  itself.  The  censure  passed  upon 
Jesus  has  gibbeted  His  inquisitors  for  all  generations.  "  He 
came  unto  His  own,  and  His  own  received  Him  not." 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  EGOISM  OF  JESUS 

I.  The  struggle  with  the  hierarchy  became  pronounced  and 
definite  in  the  middle  part  of  Christ's  Ministry,  and  at  this  point 
our  chronology  is  altogether  tentative.  From  the  unnamed  feast 
to  the  winter  Festival  of  the  Dedication  affords  a  period  of  several 
months;  while  a  great  part  of  the  Gospel  records  may  rightly 
belong  to  this  interval  of  time,  yet  all  certainty  of  time-sequence 
is  lost  to  us.  A  general  characteristic  of  our  Lord's  Ministry 
during  these  months,  however,  was  manifestly  a  growing  emphasis 
of  egoistic  claim ;  and  this  fact  supplies  a  test-principle  by  which 
to  judge  the  appositeness  of  many  of  the  incidents,  and  to  give 
them  a  presumptive  place  in  the  ground-plan  of  the  ministry 
in  St.  Mark.  The  course  of  events  in  St.  Luke's  gospel,  while 
agreeing  with  St,  Mark's  order  at  the  earlier  and  later  stages, 
is  interrupted  by  the  great  interpolation  ^ — a  composite  mass  of 
incidents  collected  by  the  author  from  eye-witnesses  and  fugitive 
memoirs  and  related  without  chronological  sequence.  The  sol- 
emn introduction  of  this  interpolation  has  led  many  to  suppose 
that  it  covers  the  last  three  or  four  months  only  of  our  Lord's 
life,  and  records  slow  progress  towards  Jerusalem ;  ^  but  careful 
analysis  suggests  that  it  contains  fragmentary  accounts  of  at 
least  three  separate  journeys  toward  the  capital.^  Even  more 
difficult  still  is  the  task  of  finding  links  and  connections  between 
the  material  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  and  the  Synoptics,  and  it  is 
only  by  ignoring  the  theological  scheme  of  St.  John  and  trans- 
ferring parts  of  his  record,  according  to  inherent  probabilities, 
that  his  reminiscences  can  be  fitted  into  the  Marcan  framework 
at  all.  Our  method  of  procedure  may  appear  to  some  altogether 
too  subjective  for  reliance:  however,  we  make  no  pretensions 
to  certitude,  but  are  content  to  test  its  validity  by  the  inherent 
probability  of  the  results. 

*Luke  ix.  51-xviii.  31.  2  piunimer,  in  loco.,  chap,  ix.,  Siflf. 

^  Wieseler,  Chron.  Syn.,  iv.,  Eng.  Ed.,  pp.  289ff. 

193 


194    The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

2.  We  have  discovered  no  authoritative  facts  to  aid  us  in 
deciding  the  vexed  question  of  the  unnamed  feast ;  it  may  have 
been  the  Purim  in  the  spring,  or  it  may  have  been  the  time  of 
Pentecost,  about  June.  In  either  case  we  should  place  the 
miracle  of  feeding  the  five  thousand  in  the  following  spring, 
so  that  there  was  an  interval  of  many  months,  giving  adequate 
time  for  the  Galilean  tour  of  the  Twelve  which  Jesus  so  solemnly 
commissioned  them  to  execute/  Professor  Briggs,-  however,  has 
contributed  the  valuable  suggestion  that,  having  given  this  com- 
mission, Jesus  journeyed  southward,  taking  with  Him  the  "  Sons 
of  Thunder,"  James  and  John,  who  had  friends  at  Jerusalem, 
sending  them  back  again  to  resume  their  evangelism  after  the 
feast.  If,  as  the  same  writer  conjectures,  there  were  frequent 
visitations  to  Jesus  by  the  various  groups  of  disciples  all  through 
the  mission  period,  the  Lord  must  have  kept  in  touch  with  all 
of  them,  affording  the  occasional  encouragement  and  stimulus 
they  would  need;  and,  further,  such  coming  and  going  of  the 
several  disciples  would  account  for  various  streams  of  oral  testi- 
mony relating  to  the  ministry  of  this  period,  and  for  confusions, 
overlappings  and  omissions  in  our  surviving  Gospels.  We  must 
remind  ourselves,  too,  that  although  topical  interest  led  us  to 
connect  the  two  missions  in  our  discussion,  yet  it  was  probably 
not  until  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles  in  the  autumn  of  the  second 
year  that  Jesus  sent  seventy  evangelists  into  Persea.  At  the  close 
of  this  later  feast,  the  enmity  of  the  hierarchy  to  Jesus  became 
so  threatening  that  He  left  the  temple  and  sought  temporary 
concealment — perhaps  at  Bethany.^  During  the  Feast  of  Taber- 
nacles Nicodemus  was  constrained,  by  his  feeling  of  justice,  to  put 
in  a  plea  for  a  more  temperate  hearing  of  the  claims  of  Jesus, 
and  thus  drew  upon  himself  a  suspicion  that  he  favoured  the 
Galilean  pretender.*  Whether  the  secret  interview  which  Nico- 
demus sought  with  Jesus  by  night  be  placed  before  or  after  this 
incident,  may  be  left  to  the  reader's  judgement;  although  it  may 
be  pointed  out  that  the  effect  of  his  intervention  in  the  San- 
hedrim gave  a  reason  for  courting  obscurity  in  any  personal 
dealings  he  might  have  with  Jesus;  and  the  character  of  our 
Lord's  words  to  the  timid  senator  is  singularly  harmonious  with 
His  egoistic  tone  and  claims  at  the  later  period. 

'Cf.  Luke  ix.  6;  Mark  vi.  30,  31.         ^  Cf.  John  viii.  59;  Luke  x.  38. 
"New  Light,  pp.  44,  47.  "John  vii.  50. 


The  Egoism  of  Jesus  195 

3.  From  the  unnamed  feast  and  miracle  at  Bethesda  to  the 
memorable  happenings  at  the  Maccabean  Feast  of  the  Dedication, 
there  can  be  traced  an  intensified  emphasis  upon  the  spiritual 
nature  of  the  Kingdom  on  the  one  side  and  a  growing  boldness 
of  accentuation  upon  the  centrality  claimed  for  His  own  person 
on  the  other.  In  a  swift  and  brief  review  of  many  incidents, 
we  shall  pass  by  important  truths  and  inferences  in  order  that 
we  may  dwell  upon  the  steps  leading  up  to  the  climax  of  Christ's 
self-disclosure, — tracing  the  deepening  note  of  personal  authority 
claimed  by  Jesus,  and  the  resultant  struggle  growing  ever  sterner, 
until  at  last  the  blind  man  is  formally  excommunicated  by  the 
Pharisees,  because  Jesus  gave  him  his  sight.  While  in  Galilee, 
Jesus  had  for  the  most  part  contented  Himself  with  announcing 
the  Kingdom ;  in  Judaea  He  transferred  the  weight  of  His  teach- 
ing to  the  setting  forth  of  Himself  as  the  King.  The  new  the- 
ocracy was  to  be  independent  of  earthly  and  temporal  conditions : 
it  could  bear  no  likeness  to  the  reign  of  Herod  or  of  Caesar;  its 
territory  is  in  the  soul,  and  man's  citizenship  in  it  possessed  him 
of  everlasting  life.  Notwithstanding  His  high  claims,  Jesus  had 
to  create  a  new  conception  of  Kingship — of  one  who  saves  and 
instructs  His  people.  "  And  I  cannot  help  thinking,  Socrates, 
that  the  form  of  the  Divine  Shepherd  is  even  higher  than  that 
of  a  King."  ^  Jesus  announced  the  elevation  of  the  Son  of  Man 
both  at  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles  and  in  speaking  to  Nicodemus ;  ^ 
"  when  He  should  be  lifted  up,"  men  would  recognize  His  author- 
ity. The  late  master  of  Balliol  has  written :  "  The  ancient  Stoics 
spoke  of  a  wise  man,  perfect  in  virtue,  who  was  fancifully  said 
to  be  a  king;  but  neither  they  nor  Plato  had  arrived  at  the  con- 
ception of  a  person  who  was  also  a  law."  But  Jesus  sought  to 
impress  His  Personality  upon  His  disciples,  so  that  He  Himself 
might  be  the  inspiring  and  constraining  power  and  law  of  their 
lives.  Not  in  support  of  any  theological  dogma  or  church  would 
we  trace  this  phase  of  His  Ministry,  but  simply  that  we  may 
perceive  the  force  and  character  of  the  Person  behind  all  the 
creeds  and  institutions  of  the  Church.  Our  examination  of  the 
incidents  and  doctrines  of  this  period  may  involve  a  certain 
amount  of  repetition ;  but  there  will  be  no  redundancy  if  we  are 
helped  to  understand  the  central,  authoritative  place  in  the  King- 
dom of  God  claimed  by  the  Lowly  Nazarene.     The  fact  of  this 

*  Plato's  Statesman,  Jowett's  trans.,  p.  275. 
*John  iii.  14;  viii.  28. 


196    The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

royal  pretension  on  the  part  of  Jesus  was  fully  recognized  by  the 
late  Sir  J.  R.  Seeley :  "  As  with  Socrates  argument  is  everything 
and  personal  authority  nothing,  so  with  Christ  personal  authority 
is  all  in  all,  and  argument  altogether  unemployed.  As  Socrates 
is  never  tired  of  depreciating  himself  and  dissembling  his  own 
superiority  to  those  with  whom  he  converses,  so  Christ  perpetually 
and  constantly  exalts  Himself.  As  Socrates  firmly  denies  what 
all  admit,  and  explains  away  what  the  oracle  had  announced — viz. 
his  own  superior  wisdom ;  so  Christ  steadfastly  asserts  what 
many  were  not  prepared  to  admit — viz.  His  own  absolute  superi- 
ority to  all  men,  and  His  natural  title  to  universal  royalty."  ^ 

4.  Even  the  episode  connected  with  His  brothers'  reproof,- 
which  Renan  rightly  characterized  as  "  a  small  historical  treasure," 
discloses  to  us  the  amazing  egoism  of  Jesus.  These  "  brethren  of 
the  Lord  "  may  have  been  real  brothers,  or  half-brothers,  or  only 
cousins,  since  in  the  East  the  term  "  brother  "  is  used  in  the  loosest 
fashion ;  but  we  think  it  not  improbable  that  these  men  were  the 
sons  of  Mary,  and  that  they  had  been  brought  up  in  the  home 
of  Jesus.  The  natural  prejudices  engendered  by  familiarity 
caused  them  not  merely  to  discredit  His  Messiahship,  not  only 
to  grudge  Him  the  merit  of  superiority,  but  also  to  impugn  His 
sanity.  Still,  the  miracles  of  Jesus  had  at  last  made  an  impression 
on  their  gross  understandings,  and  they  come  urging  Him  to  go 
up  to  the  Feast  of  the  Tabernacles,  and  there  dazzle  and  win  the 
influential  citizens  by  a  display  of  His  power.  Who  that  has 
read  the  life  of  Schiller  has  not  smiled  at  the  Duke  of  Wurtem- 
berg's  proposal  to  help  the  young  poet  to  improve  his  literary 
style?  Yet  such  proffered  patronage,  however  ludicrous,  is  not 
to  be  compared  with  the  vanity  of  those  brothers  of  Jesus  who 
would  have  counselled  Jesus  that  their  own  ambitions  might  be 
realized!  In  their  little  cave  of  family  prejudice  and  pride,  they 
lived  thinking  the  shadows  to  be  real,  while  their  great  Brother 
stood  on  the  mount  and  swept  far  horizons  with  vision  all  un- 
dimmed  by  local  feelings  and  national  expectations.  On  no 
lines  of  earth-born  ambition  did  Jesus  move,  but  He  followed 
the  directivity  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  His  own  pure  heart.  Neither 
the  advice  nor  the  implied  reproach  affected  His  designs:  with 
grave,  subdued  irony  He  answered  that  His  time  had  not  come ; 
but  they,  being  what  they  were,  incurred  no  hatred  from  the 
^  Ecce  Homo,  p.  89.  'John  vii.  i-io. 


The  Egoism  of  Jesus  197 

world,  and  so  might  go  up  to  Jerusalem  at  any  time.  That 
Jesus  should  have  seemed  to  say  that  He  was  not  going  up  to 
the  festival  has  caused  no  little  perplexity ;  ^  but,  for  ourselves,  we 
are  sure  that  He  practised  no  duplicity,  and  that  is  enough.  The 
recurrence  of  that  allusion  to  His  time  ^  once  again  conveys  the 
impression  that  Jesus  was  conscious  of  the  supernatural  provi- 
dence regulating  the  course  of  His  Ministry,  so  that  He  ever 
moved  along  the  way  marked  out  with  unwavering  and  un- 
hasting  tread.  As  we  retrace  His  steps  in  history,  we  discover 
the  clear  unfolding  of  a  wondrous  plan  in  which  the  graduated 
assumption  of  Messianic  authority  and  the  processive  unveiling 
of  His  own  Ego  played  a  part  as  important  as  His  verbal  in- 
struction and  His  gracious  works.  Although  He  would  not  allow 
His  brothers  in  the  flesh  to  push  their  private  schemes  of  aggran- 
dizement through  Him,  He  had  really  set  His  face  toward  Jerusa- 
lem, as  there,  He  felt,  it  was  fitting  that  He  should  declare 
Himself  once  again ;  but  He  resolutely  shunned  uninstructed 
enthusiasm  and  designed  to  travel  with  two  or  three  friends, 
"  as  it  were  in  secret." 

5.  Travelling  thus  along  the  Samaritan  route,  Jesus  sent 
messengers  to  secure  Him  a  place  of  rest  at  one  of  the  villages 
— perhaps  Engannim,  the  Fountain  of  Gardens.  At  this  season, 
however,  race  prejudices  were  active,  and  seeing  that  Jesus  was 
going  to  Jerusalem,  the  Samaritan  villages  refused  to  receive 
Him.  It  is  evident  that  the  disciples  themselves  attributed  their 
own  notions  of  Messianic  dignity  to  their  Master,  and,  being 
angry  at  the  insult  offered,  they  now  urged  Him  to  call  down 
fire  from  heaven  to  consume  the  inhospitable  people.  Whether 
the  answer  recorded  was  really  spoken  by  Jesus  or  not,  it  gives 
an  appropriate  explication  of  His  mind :  "  Ye  know  not  what 
manner  of  spirit  ye  are  of;  for  the  Son  of  Man  came  not  to 
destroy  men's  lives,  but  to  save  them."  So  far  was  such  a  con- 
ception of  Christ's  Ministry  beyond  the  highest  thoughts  of  the 
disciples,  that  it  appears  most  probable  that  He  Himself  enun- 
ciated the  soteriological  idea  of  His  service  to  men.  If  this  be 
so,  the  transcendent  egoism,  which  characterizes  the  middle  stage 
of  the  progress  of  Jesus,  is  conjoined  with  the  widest  humani- 
tarian altruism.     The  lifting  up  of  Jesus  was  a  means  to  one  of 

^  Commentators  suggest  that  om  ought  to  be  oviru. 
'  6  Kaipbq  6  k/xdg. 


198    The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

the  divinest  of  ends — the  reconciliation  of  man  with  God.  And 
it  is  not  irrelevant  to  reflect  that  this  incident  discovers  to 
us  also  the  mind  of  the  disciples,  that  it  can  be  easily  conjectured 
the  type  of  wonder-works  which  they  would  have  been  prone 
to  suggest ;  also  what  the  character  of  the  Gospel  records  would 
have  been  had  they  sprung  from  fictitious  inventions  of  the 
followers  of  Jesus. 

6.  The  delay  of  Jesus  to  make  an  appearance  at  the  beginning 
of  the  feast  had  aroused  disappointment  and  evoked  discussions 
concerning  His  claims  and  character.  Some  said,  "  He  is  a 
good  man,"  but  others  replied,  "  No,  He  is  leading  the  multitudes 
astray."  At  the  time  of  this  Feast  of  the  Tabernacles,  opinion 
about  Jesus  was  still  in  a  state  of  transition ;  the  hierarchy  had 
not  yet  sought  openly  to  influence  the  pilgrims  to  assume  hostility 
toward  Him.  We  may  pause  at  this  point  to  comment  upon  the 
criticism  of  St.  John's  record  of  this  visit, — that  the  author 
or  redactor  has  changed  the  historical  Son  of  Man  into  a  theo- 
logical ideal.  Some  do  not  hesitate  to  charge  upon  St.  John's 
gospel  a  distorted  and  unreliable  account  of  Jesus,  softening  the 
accusation  by  attributing  the  transformation  in  part  to  the  lapse 
of  time  between  the  occurrence  of  events  and  the  writing  of 
them  down.  We  feel  the  justice  of  Dr.  Dods'  reply  to  this: 
"  Too  much  may  very  easily  be  made  of  the  distance  in  time 
between  the  events  and  their  record.  A  second  generation  is 
sometimes  spoken  of  as  if  it  arrived  all  at  once,  and  in  a  day 
displaced  and  abolished  the  first  generation,  like  changing  guard 
at  a  military  post,  or  like  the  sudden  displacement  of  day  by  night 
in  the  tropics.  But  many  persons  who  had  seen  Jesus  in  Jerusa- 
lem and  Galilee  must  have  survived  till  the  end  of  the  century; 
many  must  have  been  of  an  age  to  check  the  romancing  of  the 
evangelists,  if  such  there  was,  by  their  own  knowledge."  ^  Great 
as  are  the  differences  between  the  Synoptics  and  the  Fourth  Gos- 
pel, they  need  not  be  exaggerated;  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
common  intelligence  of  the  reader  has  found  no  fatal  incongruity 
between  the  earlier  and  later  portraits  of  Jesus.  The  glowing 
heat  of  apostolic  mysticism  has  not  blurred  the  outlines  of  the 
Son  of  Man;  St.  John's  Incarnate  Logos  is  one  with  the  Jesus 
of  St.  Mark.  It  is  too  often  forgotten  that  the  Synoptic  Gospels 
were  written  because  men  believed  in  the  Pauline  Christ,  with 
'  Dods,  The  Bible,  Its  Origin  and  Nature,  p.  183. 


The  Egoism  of  Jesus  199 

whom  the  Johannine  Lord  is  identical.  The  account  given  by 
St.  John,  of  the  Divine  Son's  self-disclosure  at  the  Feast  of  the 
Tabernacles,  affords  an  historic  and  rational  basis  for  the  sublime 
Christology  propagated  within  a  few  years  of  the  Crucifixion. 
If  the  claims  and  affirmations  put  into  the  mouth  of  Jesus  at  this 
feast  be  substantially  correct — and  St.  John's  witness  is  rendered 
the  more  probable  in  that  these  things  are  implied  in  the  whole 
presentation  of  Jesus  in  the  other  three  gospels — then  St.  Paul's 
doctrine  of  Christ  is  historically  explicable  and  trustworthy  as 
articulating  the  self-consciousness  of  Jesus. 

7.  The  arrival  of  Jesus  aroused  into  dire  activity  the  antago- 
nism of  both  priests  and  Pharisees.  One  feels  that  none  but 
a  contemporary  could  have  borne  witness  to  an  alliance  so 
pregnant  with  fateful  issues  as  that  which  drew  Sadducees  and 
Pharisees  together.  At  first  the  Sanhedrim  appointed  officers 
to  arrest  Jesus  at  some  fitting  opportunity,  but  His  increasing 
popularity  made  the  men  afraid.  Nicodemus  remonstrated  with 
the  other  counsellors :  "  Doth  our  law  judge  the  man  before  it 
hear  Him  and  know  what  He  doeth  ?  "  The  true  nature  of  the 
struggle  which  was  in  process  between  Jesus  and  the  rulers  was 
uncomprehended  by  the  common  people,  and  some  were  shocked 
when  they  heard  Jesus  charge  His  enemies  with  seeking  His 
death,  attributing  such  suspicions  to  melancholia.  Opinions  were 
divided,  and  momentous  questions  sprang  to  men's  lips  as  they 
listened  to  Jesus:  "Who  art  Thou?"  "Whence  art  Thou?" 
"Whither  goest  Thou?"  "Will  He  kill  Himself?"  There 
were  those  who  inclined  to  think  that  Jesus  must  be  the  herald 
of  Messiah's  coming,  and  others  queried  if  the  Messiah  Himself 
could  do  greater  miracles  than  those  Jesus  wrought.  It  was 
the  season  of  debate:  men  were  agitated  and  tossed  by  doubts, 
as  the  waves  of  the  sea  in  a  storm ;  they  could  remain  scornfully 
indifferent  no  longer;  they  felt  that  the  moment  was  nigh  when 
they  would  be  compelled  to  take  sides  for  or  against  Him-  It 
was  essentially  and  necessarily  a  period  when  Jesus  must  give 
full  disclosure  of  His  real  claims.  This  change  in  men's  attitude 
to  Him  forced  Jesus  to  adjust  Himself  to  the  new  conditions, 
and  we  observe  in  the  record  a  displacement  of  the  winsomeness 
of  His  early  manner  by  the  consciousness  of  majestic  authority. 
He  saw  the  inevitable  issue  of  the  hierarchy's  hostility  to  Himself 
and  began  to  allude  in  a  veiled  way  to  His  death.     His  teaching 


200    The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

at  this  juncture  was  no  dead  creed,  no  abstract  reasoning  about 
existence;  it  was,  rather,  the  unfolding  of  a  life  of  absolute 
obedience  to  the  Will  of  the  Father :  men  morally  unready  could 
not  receive  His  Truth,  but  in  minds  prepared  it  wrought  emanci- 
pation from  sin.  Jesus  felt  this  need  for  moral  preparation  in 
His  hearers,  and  plainly  told  the  leaders  of  Israel  that  they  re- 
jected Him  because  fleshly  habits  and  ambitions  had  perverted 
their  judgement. 

8.  The  culmination  of  egoism  was  reached  on  the  last  great 
day  of  the  feast,  when  Jesus  stood  and  cried,  "  If  any  man  thirst, 
let  him  come  unto  Me,  and  let  him  drink  that  believeth  in  Me: 
as  saith  the  Scriptures,  out  of  his  belly  shall  flow  rivers  of  living 
water."  A  little  later  Jesus  declared  to  His  amazed  hearers, 
"  I  am  the  Light  of  the  World."  Allusions  to  the  ceremonial 
symbolism  of  the  feast  must  not  obscure  the  magnitude  of  these 
metaphors.  Jesus  recognized  that  man's  life  is  a  pilgrimage, 
sometimes  through  an  inferno,  sometimes  up  the  steep  mount  of 
cleansing;  but  He  offers  Himself  as  the  satisfaction  for  soul- 
thirst,  and  as  the  light  of  man's  way.  The  mystery  of  His  claims 
was  further  deepened  by  the  saying,  "  Before  Abraham  was, 
I  am."  Egoism  such  as  this  would  seem  incredible  if  it  were 
not  that  all  the  implications  of  the  Gospels  authenticate  these 
claims.  One  "  aerolite  from  the  Johannine  heaven  "  ^  is  found 
imbedded  in  the  Synoptics :  "  All  things  have  been  delivered  to 
Me  by  My  Father,  and  no  one  understands  the  Son  but  the 
Father.  Nor  does  anyone  understand  the  Father  but  the  Son, 
and  he  to  whom  the  Son  may  choose  to  reveal  Him.  Come  unto 
Me  all  ye  who  are  weary  and  burdened,  and  I  will  give  you  rest," 
etc.  The  metaphysical  postulates  lying  behind  these  utterances 
may  elude  our  grasp,  but  we  must  not  therefore  let  slip  the 
reality  of  this  overflow  of  the  consciousness  of  Jesus.  He  had 
identified  Himself  so  intimately  with  the  eternal  Truth  of  God, 
that  His  own  life  had  a  royal  and  central  meaning  for  the  whole 
Kingdom  of  God.  His  hearers  interpreted  the  words  of  Jesus 
as  blasphemy,  and  took  up  stones  to  cast  at  Him ;  they  were  thrust 
upon  the  horns  of  this  dilemma:  either  the  Truth  was  in  Him, 
or  He  was  guilty  of  blackest  profanity.  The  Sanhedrists  looked 
upon  Jesus  as  a  blasphemer;  the  disciples  accepted  Him  as  the 
Master  of  their  lives. 

*  Matt.  xi.  27-30 ;  Luke  x.  22. 


The  Egoism  of  Jesus  201 

9.  Among  the  incidents  which  exerted  but  sHght  influence 
upon  the  external  development  of  Jesus'  Ministry,  and  yet  which 
throw  considerable  Hght  upon  His  personal  claims,  we  may  give 
an  eminent  place  to  the  dialogue  between  Jesus  and  Nicodemus. 
Its  connection  with  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles  may  appear  slender 
or  wholly  arbitrary,  but  there  is  at  least  a  topical  interest  and 
link  in  the  self-disclosure  of  Jesus  at  the  feast  as  the  Water  of 
Life  and  the  Light  of  the  World,  and,  in  the  secret  night  inter- 
view with  the  timid  counsellor,  as  the  Life-Giver.  He  taught 
Nicodemus  that  only  such  as  are  born  from  above  can  enter 
into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  The  possibility  of  such  second 
birth  for  man  rests  upon  the  operation  of  the  Divine  Spirit, 
which  is  perpetually  breathing  upon  us  like  a  holy  wind.  At 
His  touch,  if  only  man  wills  to  respond,  the  mind  bursts  through 
its  chrysalis  sheath  and  becomes  the  percipient  of  a  new  heaven 
and  a  new  earth.  Jesus  claims  to  speak  with  the  authority  of 
personal  experience ;  His  own  vision  was  clarified  and  certified 
at  His  baptism,  and  the  heavens  were  opened  to  His  soul.  But 
"  if  you  have  not  believed  earthly  things  relating  to  man's  spirit- 
birth,  how  will  you  believe  Heavenly  truths  which  can  be  medi- 
ated only  by  one  who  has  looked  upon  God  face  to  face  ?  "  A 
parallel  utterance  is  found  in  the  apocryphal  scriptures :  "  And 
hardly  do  we  divine  the  things  that  are  on  earth,  and  the  things 
that  are  close  at  hand  we  find  with  labour;  but  the  things  that 
are  in  heaven,  whoever  yet  traced  out?  "  ^  Jesus,  however,  pre- 
sents Himself  to  Nicodemus  as  the  Mediator  of  a  new  life  with 
new  senses  of  the  Spirit :  by  being  lifted  up.  He  will  bring 
quickening  and  knowledge  to  men  just  as  the  elevation  of  the 
brazen  Serpent  mediated  life  and  health  to  Israel.  The  Evan- 
gelist treats  this  saying  as  an  allusion  to  the  Cross,  a  possible 
reference  at  the  middle  part  of  Jesus'  Ministry;  but  Jesus  may 
have  thought  of  His  own  inward  uplifting  into  the  sure  conscious- 
ness of  things  of  the  Spirit,  and  of  the  boon  He  bestows  upon 
all  who  give  Him  preeminence  in  their  lives.  "  Whosoever  be- 
lieveth  may  in  Him  have  eternal  life." 

10.  This  mysterious  Egoism  of  Jesus  is  indissolubly  associ- 
ated with  His  teaching  concerning  a  new  philanthropy  realizable 
in  the  Reign  of  God — an  aspect  of  thought  illustrated  in  the 
answer  of  Jesus  to  another  learned  inquirer  about  the  eternal 

*  Wisdom  ix.  i6. 


202    The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

life.  In  response  to  Jesus'  interrogation  concerning  the  law,  the 
questioner  summed  up  the  teaching  of  the  Old  Covenant  in  two 
words — love  to  God  and  love  to  one's  neighbour/  and  then  said, 
"  Who  is  my  neighbour  ?  "  The  story  of  the  Good  Samaritan  is 
Christ's  answer,  and  in  it  He  teaches  that  humanity  counts  more 
than  orthodoxy;  that  the  eternal  life  is  love,  and  belongs  equally 
to  Samaritans  and  to  Jews.  Jesus  overleapt  all  barriers  of  race, 
and  inculcated  a  love  as  deep  and  catholic  as  the  nature  of  man- 
kind, thus  restoring  the  true  balance  to  the  religious  and  ethical 
life.  Jesus  taught  that  religion  consists  not  only  in  pious  exer- 
cises, but  also  in  an  ennobling  service  of  others.  Humanitarian- 
ism,  sometimes  thought  of  as  the  discovery  of  modernism,  formed 
a  vital  part  of  the  religious  ideal  of  Jesus;  but  the  motive  and 
impulse  to  the  truest  philanthropy  will  ever  spring  from  attach- 
ment to  the  central  Person  of  Christ  Jesus.  One  of  the  perils 
of  Christian  thought  is  that  of  losing  wholeness  of  vision  through 
the  need  of  emphasizing  particular  aspects.  The  renewed  study 
of  the  Gospels  restores  the  balance  to  faith ;  the  mind  beholds 
how  in  them  the  philosophy  of  the  Logos  is  vitally  bound  up 
with  the  historic  life  of  the  Son  of  Man,  and  contemplates  in 
Jesus  Himself  the  perfect  equipoise  between  the  inner  and  outer 
life  of  man :  He  is  "  the  root  and  offspring  of  David,  and  the 
bright,  the  morning  star."  The  idealism  of  the  Gospels  is  not 
abstract,  vague  and  uncertain;  for  in  Jesus  the  ideal  is  realized 
and  embodied:  the  disciples  did  not  pursue  wandering  marsh- 
fires,  nor  gave  they  their  lives  to  propagate  an  airy  dream  born 
of  speculative  fancy ;  they  were  attached  to  the  highest,  concrete 
moral  reality  of  history — the  one  Perfect  Personality  of  our 
world.  The  Supreme  Christ  and  Son  of  God  of  the  Johannine 
record  is  linked  with  the  Son  of  Man  in  the  midst  of  lowly 
human  surroundings  portrayed  by  St.  Luke;  the  Light  of  the 
World  shines  in  the  narrow  sphere  of  Jewish  society. 

II.  The  claim  of  Jesus  to  this  central  position  and  power 
made  at  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles  appears  incidentally  in  St. 
Luke's  account  of  what  occurred  in  the  house  of  Simon  the 
Pharisee.  Since  Jesus  received  none  of  the  customary  acts  of 
courtesy  and  welcome  at  Simon's  house,  the  suggestion  arises 
that  the  invitation  may  have  been  part  of  the  plan  of  Pharisaic 
espionage  to  which  Jesus  was  subjected  at  that  time.  The  tale 
'Deut.  vi.  3;  Lev.  xix.  i8. 


The  Egoism  of  Jesus  203 

of  the  abandoned  woman  is  full  of  exquisite  tenderness,  so  that, 
as  Gregory  said,  one  is  more  inclined  to  weep  over  it  than  to 
preach  about  it.  This  passionate,  erring  woman  must  have  heard 
Jesus  speaking  at  some  earlier  time,  and  now  she  purposed  to 
anoint  Him  with  her  precious  unguent;  but  while  standing  be- 
hind Him,  her  heart  was  caught  in  a  storm  of  conflicting  emo- 
tions, and  she  could  only  bedew  His  travel-stained,  unwashed 
feet  with  the  rain  of  her  tears,  kissing  them  fervently,  as  again 
and  again  she  sought  to  dry  them  with  her  loosened  hair.  Per- 
ceiving His  host's  censorious  thoughts,  Jesus  related  the  parable 
of  the  Pardoned  Debtors ;  then,  by  a  sudden  Socratic  questioning, 
elicited  from  Simon  his  own  self-condemnation.  The  depth  of 
Jesus'  emotion  flowed  forth  in  rhythmical  speech  as  He  con- 
trasted Simon's  discourtesy  with  the  profound  reverence  and 
love  shown  by  the  woman,  "  Forgiven  are  her  many  sins,  be- 
cause she  loved  much ;  but  he  to  whom  little  is  forgiven,  loveth 
little."  Again  there  is  implied  the  unique  power  of  Jesus  to 
absolve  human  sin ;  and  the  story  reveals  that  it  seemed  natural 
to  Himself  to  be  made  the  object  of  an  overwhelming  love  and 
gratitude.  And  yet  the  companion  story  of  a  scene  in  the  home 
of  Lazarus  at  Bethany  shows  that  this  transcendent,  self-con- 
sciousness of  Jesus  was  associated  with  extreme  simplicity  of 
personal  habit;  for,  when  Martha  was  cumbered  with  household 
duties  and  vexed  with  her  sister's  inaction,  Jesus  soothed  her  by 
saying  that  one  dish  would  have  been  enough :  where  He  was 
guest,  hospitality  need  not  be  lavish  if  it  be  sincere. 

12.  There  was  something  of  climactic  significance  in  the 
self-revelation  of  Jesus  through  His  work  and  teaching  at  the 
Dedication  Feast  about  the  time  of  the  winter  solstice.  The  night 
approached  when  the  Son  of  Man  would  cease  to  minister  in 
human  ways;  Jesus  already  began  to  feel  straitened  for  His 
baptism.  As  the  disciples  were  entering  the  temple  with  Him, 
they  saw  a  blind  man  and  inquired  whether  this  affliction  was 
due  to  the  fault  of  the  parents  or  to  some  mysterious,  prenatal 
sin.  "  Neither,"  said  Jesus ;  "  the  man  is  destined  to  be  an  object 
of  Divine  mercy;  God's  work  is  to  annul  evil."  He  oifered  no 
theoretic  solution  of  the  problem  of  evil :  faith  in  God's  goodness 
made  it  clear  that  suffering  itself  is  part  of  the  Providential 
discipline  of  life.  In  defiance  of  all  Jewish  conventions  on  the 
Sabbath-day  Jesus  took  clay  and  anointed  the  eyes  of  the  blind 


204     The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

man,  sending  him  to  wash  in  the  waters  of  Siloam.  This  act 
occasioned  a  renewal  of  the  old  controversy,  as  Jesus  doubt- 
lessly intended;  some  witnesses  argued  that  a  man  who  violated 
the  Sabbath  could  not  be  from  God,  while  others  reasoned  that 
such  signs  as  these  could  not  spring  from  an  evil  heart.  It 
appears  as  if  Jesus  proposed  to  strike  a  decisive  blow  at  Jewish 
prejudices,  knowing  that  the  authorities  had  resolved  to  excom- 
municate all  who  confessed  Him  to  be  the  Messiah.  The  healed 
man  expostulated  with  the  official  leaders  of  Judaism,  who 
angrily  criticized  both  him  and  his  Healer :  it  was  strange,  he  said, 
that  they  did  not  know  Jesus,  since  if  He  were  an  impious  and 
disobedient  man  as  they  represented,  God  would  not  hear  His 
prayer  and  use  Him  to  open  blind  eyes.  This  shrewd  logic  only 
intensified  the  hostility  to  Jesus,  and  His  opponents  punished  the 
man  by  formal  excommunication.  By  thus  sentencing  the  ad- 
herents of  Jesus  to  religious  ostracism,  they  declared  their  an- 
tagonism to  the  Reign  of  God  initiated  by  their  Foe.  Finding 
this  involuntary  sufferer  of  His  movement,  the  Master  revealed 
to  him  that  He  was  the  Son  of  God  in  the  world,  and  then  He 
publicly  announced  that  although  rejected  by  the  leaders  He 
was  indeed  the  Shepherd  of  God's  flock.  The  official  repudiation 
of  His  central  claim  only  elicits  a  fresh  revelation  that  He  is  the 
Door,  and  that  through  Him  the  souls  of  men  shall  be  led  into 
Divine  pastures.  The  pastoral  figure,  consecrated  in  Israel  by 
prophet  and  psalmist,  is  taken  up  by  Jesus ;  He  claims  to  be  the 
Fair  Shepherd,  who  lays  down  His  life  for  His  flock.  Israel 
of  the  Spirit  would  know  His  voice  and  follow  Him,  although 
through  Him  the  falsity  of  the  leaders  of  the  nation  would  be 
disclosed.  In  Christ's  white  Presence  men  divide  into  two  classes 
— those  who  are  for  Him,  and  those  who  are  against  Him. 
Sternly  He  declares  that  the  priests  are  but  hirelings,  who  flee 
at  the  approach  of  danger,  while  the  Pharisees  who  excom- 
municated the  healed  man  were  as  wolves  that  tear  God's  flock. 
Then  the  vision  of  Jesus  broadens  out  beyond  the  Jewish  race, 
and  He  declares,  "  Other  sheep  have  I  which  are  not  of  this 
fold:  them  also  will  I  bring,  and  there  shall  be  one  flock  and 
one  shepherd."  While  the  three  parables  spoken  at  this  feast 
describe  the  Reign  of  God  in  the  terms  of  pastoral  life,  the 
central,  and  dominating  figure  in  each  is  that  of  the  Fair  Shep- 
herd. The  official  leaders  of  Judaism  plainly  perceived  this  fact, 
and  threatened  Him  with  stoning:  as  the  builders  of  old  re- 


The  Egoism  of  Jesus  205 

jected  the  corner-stone  of  the  temple,  the  Pharisees  and  priests 
now  repudiated  the  claims  of  Jesus. 

13.  The  august  claims  of  Jesus  have  been  advanced  here  in 
no  partisan  spirit,  nor  in  the  interests  of  any  special  theory 
concerning  His  personality,  but  rather  that  we  may  hold  in 
synthetic  imagination  all  the  phases  of  the  life  of  that  Catholic 
Man,  Such  sublime  egoism  as  we  perceive  in  the  Gospels  may 
still  prove  a  stone  of  stumbling  and  rock  of  offence ;  but  the  fact 
itself  that  Jesus  actually  made  these  transcendent  claims  must 
neither  be  glossed  over  nor  suppressed,  in  order  that  we  may  fit 
His  stature  to  any  scheme  of  Naturalism.  It  is  simply  true  that 
Jesus — the  lowly  Man  of  Nazareth — made  lofty  pretensions  to 
the  love,  reverence  and  loyalty  of  men  and  women  such  as 
Socrates,  Gautama,  Mohammed,  and  all  the  wisest  of  our  teachers 
would  instinctively  shrink  from  making.  Jesus  surpassed  them 
all  in  the  magnitude  of  His  self-consciousness.  Some  will  attrib- 
ute this  egoism  to  the  growing  fanaticism  of  Jesus;  and  yet, 
what  clear  sanity  shines  out  in  His  recorded  sayings !  When 
the  woman  said,  "  Blessed  is  the  womb  that  bear  Thee,  and  the 
breasts  which  Thou  hast  sucked,"  He  made  answer,  "  Yea,  rather 
blessed  are  they  that  hear  the  word  of  God  and  keep  it."  ^  Jesus 
Himself  was  unaware  of  any  incongruity  between  His  own  trans- 
cendent claims  and  His  teaching  of  the  supremacy  of  the  Heav- 
enly Father.  He  never  speaks  as  a  rival  of  the  Father,  but  as 
the  loyal  Son.  The  reconciliation  of  these  opposite  poles  of 
His  teaching  can  be  found  only  in  the  acceptance  of  His  media- 
torial office  in  our  world.  Jesus  is  the  centre  of  human  history, 
and  He  claims  so  much  from  man  in  order  that  He  may  lead 
the  soul  into  the  consciousness  of  the  Divine  Father.  In  the 
Name  of  Jesus,  men  are  to  meet  together,  and  in  that  same  Name 
make  their  appeals  to  God;  and  for  His  sake,  the  Father  will 
answer.  Jesus  speaks  ever  as  one  who  knows  that  God  has 
given  all  things  into  His  hands,  and  yet  He  lived  ever  as  one  who 
held  nothing  for  Himself.  His  emphasis  upon  His  own  Person 
falls  not  upon  the  mere  flesh  and  blood  of  His  individuality,  but 
upon  the  life-force  which  was  in  Him  and  which  was  a  ganglion 
in  the  network  of  all  spiritual  relationships.  The  defects  of  all 
dogmatic  treatises  that  deal  with  Christ's  Person  are  apparent 
to  all ;  and  yet  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  mind  of  the  Church 

^  Luke  xi.  27. 


206    The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

has  seized  upon  the  vital,  essential  note  of  the  transcendence  of 
Jesus.  Probably  the  mystery  of  His  Person  will  abide,  a  dark 
centre  of  light,  until  we  have  solved  problems  relating  to  our 
own  personalities;  but  while  owning  the  sense  of  mystery,  we 
ought  also  to  acknowledge  all  the  facts  belonging  to  the  actual 
history  of  Jesus.  He  is  bound  up  with  us  all,  and  touches  the 
profoundest  deeps  of  universal  humanity;  He  seems  to  speak 
and  act  as  one  possessing  the  common  soul  of  One  mighty 
organism — man. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  PER^AN  VISION 

I.  During  the  Feast  of  the  Dedication,  Jesus  enunciated  the 
cherished  purpose  of  His  mighty  heart,  and  at  the  same  time  He 
gave  an  exphcit  announcement  of  the  cathoHc  and  reconciling 
significance  of  His  own  Person :  "  Other  sheep  I  have  which  are 
not  of  this  fold :  them  also  I  must  lead  and  they  shall  hear  My 
voice;  and  there  shall  be  one  flock  and  one  shepherd."  From 
the  middle  period  of  the  Ministry  of  Jesus,  one  detects  a  deepen- 
ing of  the  tragic  note ;  there  comes  into  the  record  the  stress  of 
a  feeling  that  Jesus  was  conscious  of  a  moral  compulsion  carry- 
ing Him  in  a  direction  adverse  to  popular  wishes.  Jerusalem  be- 
came His  goal;  however  often  He  might  be  repelled  from  the 
capital,  He  was  constrained  to  turn  His  face  toward  it  again. 
The  main  tradition  of  the  Synoptics  distributed  the  Ministry 
of  Jesus  over  Galilee  and  adjoining  districts ;  and,  were  it  not  for 
a  few  hints  ^  to  the  contrary,  it  might  be  inferred  that  Jesus 
spent  all  His  time  in  the  northern  province,  and  then  came  to 
Jerusalem  for  the  last  week  of  His  life.  St.  John,  however — 
and  this  is  no  small  part  of  the  value  of  His  Gospel — enables 
us  to  correct  this  misapprehension,  showing  us  that  Jesus  went 
up  to  Jerusalem  for  the  Feasts  of  Obligation,  and  perhaps  for 
minor  festivals  as  well.  It  almost  appears  that  even  St.  Luke 
was  led  astray  by  this  Marcan  scheme  of  distributing  the  evan- 
gelic materials,  and  finding  a  series  of  fresh  traditions  outside 
the  common  source  recording  parts  of  our  Lord's  Ministry  at 
Jerusalem  or  on  journeys  hither,  imagined  that  they  must  all 
belong  to  the  last  solemn  progress  towards  the  capital.  Really 
the  great  interpolation  is  a  composite  mass  of  historic  frag- 
ments, whose  chronology  is  uncertain,  marked  by  obscure  con- 
nections and  abrupt  transitions,  and  yet  by  a  tour  de  force  welded 
into  a  seeming  unity  by  the  Synoptic  notion  that  Jesus  spent 
all  His  time  in  Galilee  and  the  northern  parts,  going  to  Jerusalem 
only  at  the  end  of  His  Ministry.  The  emphasis  upon  the  Gal- 
ilean ministry  in  the  Petrine  tradition  is  explicable  on  the  ground 

*Mark  v.  1-20 ;  vii.  31. 
307 


208    The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

that  the  controversies  of  the  Jewish  capital  would  have  little 
interest  for  Christian  communities  outside  Palestine.  It  must, 
however,  have  been  a  joy  to  St.  Luke,  imbued  as  he  was  with 
Pauline  universalism,  to  discover  a  Peraean  tradition  of  the 
wider  evangelism  initiated  by  Jesus  Himself,  although  the  Evan- 
gelist knew  but  vaguely  that  Peraea  was  a  territory  beyond 
Jordan.  In  pursuit  of  His  great  pastoral  plan,  we  learn  that 
Jesus  first  sent  forth  the  Seventy  with  the  evangel  of  the 
Kingdom;  then  followed  these  heralds  in  person.  Although  re- 
mote from  the  capital  as  were  the  places  visited,  Jesus  never 
escaped  from  official  espionage,  but  was  followed  by  the  sleepless 
vigilance  of  hostile  Pharisees.  At  times  He  was  forced  into 
fierce  polemic,  and  His  voice  grew  hard  and  stern ;  but  the  deep- 
ening shadows  bear  witness  to  the  light  which  was  obstructed, 
and  the  severity  of  His  rebukes  throws  into  relief  the  revela- 
tion of  a  new  grace  and  tenderness.  It  was  the  period  when  the 
graduated  self-disclosure  of  His  altruistic  egoism  drew  near  to 
its  climax. 

2.  Kingly  authority  was  implicit  in  the  action  of  Jesus  in 
sending  forth  the  Twelve  and  the  Seventy  as  ambassadors  of 
the  Reign  of  God,  and  in  charging  them  to  reproduce  the  miracles 
of  His  personal  ministry.  Such  an  extension  of  His  appeal  was 
no  undesigned,  unforeseen  contingency,  but  was  a  part  of  His 
original  project  of  evangelization  covering  both  Peraea  and 
Samaria.  As  He  was  borne  along  toward  the  high-water  mark 
of  popular  responsiveness,  the  mind  of  Jesus  was  pervaded  by 
a  sense  of  the  fateful  moment  in  the  struggle  against  Satan's 
power:  a  moral  presentiment  glowed  within  His  consciousness 
clear  as  a  beacon  fire.  As  he  passed  from  village  and  town 
along  the  route  He  had  marked  out.  He  was  rejoined  by  small 
groups  of  returning  evangelists,  who  exulted  in  that  their  mis- 
sion exceeded  all  expectations.  Even  the  demons  had  been 
subject  unto  them,  and  poor  victims  of  madness  and  hysteria 
had  been  recovered  through  the  power  of  Jesus'  name.  Such 
results,  however,  had  not  surpassed  the  faith  cherished  by  the 
Master  Himself,  for  in  His  own  striking,  imaginative  phrase 
He  had  seen  Satan  hurled  like  lightning  from  His  throne  and 
falling  ^  as  a  star  from  heaven.     Jesus  was  not  alluding  to  some 

'  Treadvra:    The  action  of  the  participle  coincides  in  time  with  ide6povp 
(Luke  X.  i8). 


The  Persean  Vision  209 

premundane  fall  of  the  Arch-angel  through  pride,  but  was  affirm- 
ing His  exultant  certitude  of  the  ultimate  conquest  of  the  world 
by  Righteousness  and  Love.  In  His  view  a  more  potent  cause  of 
joy  than  all  the  wonder-working  was  the  fact  of  their  per- 
sonal acceptance  with  God,  and  that  their  names  were  reg- 
istered in  Heaven.  St.  Luke  places,  in  this  connection,  the 
unique  burst  of  ecstasy  which  St.  Matthew  has  juxtaposed  with 
the  woes  pronounced  against  the  cities  of  Galilee :  "  In  that  very 
hour  He  exulted  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  said,  I  acknowledge  to 
Thee,  O  Father,  Lord  of  Heaven  and  Earth,  that  Thou  hast 
concealed  these  things  from  the  wise  and  prudent,  and  hast  re- 
vealed them  to  babes."  To  Jesus  it  was  a  provocation  of  purest 
happiness  that  God  had  chosen  these  "  babes,"  unlearned  and 
simple  men,  in  preference  to  intellectual  and  aristocratic  leaders ; 
it  signified  the  Divine  rejection  of  caste  and  class  distinctions. 
Throughout  His  Ministry,  Jesus  repudiated  the  arrogant  and  ex- 
clusive claims  of  the  schools ;  reason  was  God's  gift,  not  alone 
to  priests  and  Pharisees,  but  also  to  peasants  and  fishermen.  In 
such  a  sense  as  this  we  may  characterize  our  Lord  "  as  the  great 
democrat " ; — in  His  eyes  the  person  even  of  an  unlearned  and 
landless  hind  was  sacred,  and  ought  never  to  be  treated  as  a 
thing,  or  as  mere  means  to  an  end.  While  official  and  learned 
classes  looked  upon  His  followers  as  mere  babes,  ignorant  and 
helpless  in  all  important  affairs,  Jesus  rejoiced  that  their  mission 
had  been  sealed  by  God ;  that,  through  faith  in  Himself,  they 
had  been  invested  with  mysterious  gifts  of  the  Spirit.  The  ideal 
socialism  of  Jean-Jacques  Rousseau  can  only  be  realized  in  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  which  Jesus  identified  with  the  true  Religion 
of  Humanity ;  he  sought  "  to  find  a  form  of  society  according 
to  which  each  one  uniting  with  the  whole  shall  yet  obey  himself 
only  and  remain  as  free  as  before."  Although  Jesus  thus  asserted 
the  independence  of  His  movement  of  human  intellectualism,  it 
must  not  be  imagined  that  He  spurned  the  employment  of 
reason :  "  He  offers  every  word  He  speaks  to  the  judgement  of 
reason,  and  in  every  word  assumes  that  reason  is  able  to  judge 
of  truth  presented  to  it."  ^  Jesus  was  no  obscurantist,  though 
He  rejoiced  that  the  men  who  loved  Him  ingenuously  were  for 
the  most  part  unsophisticated  and  childlike,  for  sincerity  is  more 
necessary  even  than  learning  in  matters  of  moral  judgement. 
The  battle  He  had  entered  upon  could  never  be  won  save  by 
*  Professor  Gwatkin,  The  Knowledge  of  God,  vol.  i.,  p.  4. 


210  The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy- 
spiritual  might ;  it  was  not  simply  a  conflict  with  Pharisees  and 
lawyers,  but  with  the  very  spirit  of  evil  enthroned  in  the  world; 
and  yet  such  was  Jesus'  faith,  the  victory  was  virtually  won; 
Lucifer  was  already  falling  as  lightning. 

3.  The  complexities  of  the  literary  problem  baffle  all  quests 
for  certitude,  and  it  is  only  tentatively  that  we  can  distribute 
the  incidents  and  login  of  this  middle  period.  Increase  of  oppo- 
sition but  elicited  a  fuller  assertion  of  Christ's  authority.  While 
attending  the  two  last  feasts,  He  had  incurred  such  hostility 
that  leading  men  had  vehemently  denounced  Him  as  being  a 
Samaritan,  as  being  possessed  with  a  devil,  or  as  being  mad ;  and 
this  blasphemy  is  repeated  as  He  heals  a  dumb  demoniac.^  To 
the  charge  that  His  feats  of  exorcism  were  inspired  by  Beelzebub, 
Jesus  simply  affirmed  that  His  miracles  were  wrought  by  "  the 
finger  of  God."  As  the  conflict  raged  with  growing  intensity, 
Jesus  urged  men  to  take  sides ;  cowardice  and  neutrality  were 
rebuked  by  the  Divine  Power,  so  openly  manifested  in  Him. 
Even  the  evidence  of  His  healing  works  was  rejected  by  the 
scribes  and  Pharisees;  but  when  they  demanded  some  other  kind 
of  sign  from  Heaven,  Jesus  declared  that  the  Divine  appointment 
of  His  Ministry  was  clear  to  all  whose  inward  vision  was  un- 
darkened  by  prejudice  and  impenitence.  Their  enmity  to  Jesus 
made  them  inhuman;  instead  of  rejoicing  in  the  man's  new- 
found possession  of  speech  and  sanity  of  mind,  they  sought  to 
throw  a  dark  distrust  over  the  whole  work  of  Jesus,  and  to 
alienate  from  Him  any  who  might  feel  the  attraction  of  His 
beneficence.  Their  error  passed  from  the  region  of  intellect; 
it  became  a  black  perversion  of  their  hearts.  The  very  character 
of  this  duel  between  Jesus  and  professionalism  made  neutrality 
a  crime;  in  such  a  struggle  not  to  make  a  choice  resulted  in 
alliance  with  His  enemies. 

4.  The  invitation  of  Jesus  to  breakfast  with  a  Pharisee  on  the 
Sabbath-day  appears  as  an  incident  in  the  planned  espionage  to 
which  He  was  now  systematically  subjected.  Jesus,  however, 
accepted  it,  and  entering  the  house  from  the  polluting  contact 
of  the  outside  crowd,  He  sat  down  to  meat  without  washing 
His  hands — a  rite  which  tradition  had  made  binding.  The  omis- 
sion was  not  due  to  forgetfulness,  but  was  a  deliberate  protest 

1  Mark  iii.  19,  27;  Matt.  xii.  22-30;  Luke  xi.  I4-I7. 


The  Persean  Vision  211 

against  a  Pharisaic  tendency  to  magnify  trivialities  at  the  ex- 
pense of  humaneness.  The  astonishment  of  His  host  was  too 
apparent  to  pass  without  remark;  but  the  severity  of  Jesus 
in  commenting  upon  it  seems  almost  like  a  breach  of  good 
manners.  As  though  he  realized  this,  the  Evangelist  tacitly 
reminds  his  readers  that  Jesus  was  no  ordinary  guest,  but  that 
He  was  "the  Lord"  (o  Kvpio?).  The  Master  perceived  that 
the  Reign  of  God  in  the  hidden  life  was  imperilled  by  the 
formalism  and  pedantry  of  the  schools.  His  address,  there- 
fore, was  not  due  to  the  rustic  discourtesy  of  one  ignorant  of 
social  etiquette;  it  was  the  defence  of  the  essential  rights  and 
moral  principles  of  humanity  by  its  Lord.  When  Jesus,  by  asso- 
ciation of  ideas,  went  on  to  castigate  the  scribes,  who  not  only 
added  to  the  burdens  of  men,  but  also  exhibited  the  homicidal' 
temper  of  their  fathers,  who  had  slain  the  prophets,  a  lawyer 
remonstrated  at  the  fiery  philippic  against  his  class  {nai 
^pia?  vftpi8,si?  ).  It  was  not  that  Jesus  resented  their  hostility 
to  Himself  as  an  individual,  but  in  His  Person  they  opposed  the 
Kingdom  of  God  and  all  the  humanities.  Such  denunciations 
reveal  the  vehemence  and  stress  of  the  conflict;  it  had  reached 
a  stage  at  which  it  could  no  longer  be  concealed  by  suave  speeches. 
The  mind  of  Jesus  was  strong  and  tense  with  passionate  purpose, 
and  the  opposition  which  could  not  be  masked  reminded  Him  of 
the  fate  of  the  prophets;  He  caught  a  glimpse  of  His  own  ad- 
vancing doom,  and  it  kindled  in  Him  an  heroic  temper  which 
shook  itself  free  of  all  the  proprieties  of  conventional  life.  His 
words  fanned  the  flame  of  hate  against  Him,  and  henceforth  the 
scribes  and  Pharisees  lay  wait  for  Him  as  men  that  sought  to 
entrap  a  wild  beast  {^rfpevaai). 

5.  Another  incident  illustrative  of  the  struggle  going  on  be- 
tween Jesus  and  the  authorities  has  been  saved  by  St.  Luke ;  ^  it 
occurred  probably  during  the  Peraean  mission,  while  most  of  the 
disciples  were  still  at  work  in  Galilee.  Although  both  in  Judaea 
and  Galilee  Jesus  was  banned  from  attending  the  synagogues, 
He  was  able  to  join  in  the  weekly  worship  in  the  remoter  regions 
of  Peraea.  At  one  of  these  assemblies,  Jesus  one  Sabbath-day 
observed  a  woman  bent  and  bound  as  if  a  malignant  demon  held 
her  enthralled ;  calling  her  to  Him,  He  laid  His  hands  upon  her, 
and   she  was   immediately  recovered   from  the   infirmity.     The 

^  Luke  xiii.  10-17. 


212     The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

ruler  of  the  synagogue  was  one  of  those  foolish  men  who,  when 
clothed  in  a  little  brief  authority,  forget  the  instincts  of  humanity: 
he  remained  unaffected  by  the  woman's  exuberant  gladness,  and 
went  so  far  as  to  rebuke  the  people  for  coming  to  be  healed  on 
the  Sabbath.  Such  brutal  lack  of  sensibility  stirred  Jesus  to 
indignant  reproof ;  even  an  ox  is  watered  on  the  holy  day :  what 
fanaticism,  then,  to  object  to  the  restoring  of  one  who  had 
suffered  eighteen  years !  Before  this  scathing  exposure,  His 
adversaries  cowered  in  silenced  hate;  but  the  common  people 
rejoiced  "  over  all  the  glorious  things  that  were  being  done  by 
Him."  Upon  yet  another  Sabbath  the  scene  was  dramatically  re- 
iterated, with  changes  of  the  personcr  in  the  various  parts,  the 
recipient  of  Christ's  marvellous  grace  of  healing  being  a  man 
suffering  from  dropsy.  In  this  latter  case  there  appears  to  have 
gone  on  some  intrigue  and  collusion  to  arrange  a  scene,  so  that 
damaging  evidence  might  be  heaped  up  against  Jesus.^ 

6.  The  deepening  gloom  of  this  conflict  afforded  the  Evangel- 
ist a  background  for  the  new  evangel  of  Divine  Pity  and  For- 
giveness. If  it  were  proved  that  the  gracious  parables  of  this 
section  of  St.  Luke's  gospel  really  belong  to  an  earlier  Galilean 
ministry,  it  would  not  detract  from  the  historical  value  of  this 
artistic  representation  of  the  Light  of  the  World.  Jesus  not  only 
anticipated  the  fall  of  Satan,  in  the  vivid  imagery  of  His 
Peraean  vision,  but  He  revealed  also  that  the  secret  of  the  triumph 
of  Right  in  our  world  is  to  be  won  by  an  evangel  of  redemption. 
The  central  mission  of  the  Son  of  Man,  as  defined  by  Himself, 
was  to  seek  and  save  the  lost.  This  is  the  damning  omission  of 
non-Christian  philosophy ;  the  teachers  of  the  world  wrote  and 
taught  as  though  only  refined  and  cultured  minds  could  respond 
to  exalted  sentiments  and  lofty  doctrines  of  ethics:  but  Jesus 
made  a  point  of  addressing  His  transcendental  Gospel  of  love  to 
men  who  were  stigmatized  as  "  the  lost."  It  is  not  surprising 
that  His  enemies  murmured  the  insinuation  that  His  sympathy 
with  outcasts  sprang  from  a  root  of  evil  in  His  own  character. 
But  "  with  all  their  ingenuity  of  hate  and  malice,  never  once  did 
they  dare  to  prefer  against  Him  any  moral  charge,  and  insinua- 
tions such  as  that  '  this  man  receiveth  sinners  and  eateth  with 
them '  fell  harmless  upon  Him."  ^    Familiarity  with  this  phase  of 

'Luke  xiv.  i-6. 

2  P.  Carnegie  Simpson,  The  Fact  of  Christ,  p.  29. 


The  Peraean  Vision  213 

Christ's  teaching  makes  us  dully  acquiesce ;  but  when  we  see  how 
the  missionary's  appeal  to  "  the  lost "  is  an  offence  even  today 
to  non-Christian  civilizations,  we  begin  again  to  recover  the  sense 
of  absolute  originality  in  Jesus.  The  helots  of  society,  the 
worthless,  the  degraded,  have  not  only  missed  the  true  way  of 
life,  but  they  inflict  a  loss  upon  God  Himself.  The  loser  of  the 
foolish,  helpless  sheep,  of  the  piece  of  silver,  and  of  the  prodigal, 
in  each  instance  represents  God.  But  man  viewed  from  God's 
standpoint  is  reclaimable,  and  however  society  may  safeguard 
itself  by  stern  conventions,  the  lost  and  the  fallen  may  be  re- 
covered and  reinstated  in  the  Kingdom  of  God.  These  parables 
of  Jesus  are  no  futile  pictures  of  vague  sentimentalism ;  rather 
do  they  exhibit  the  set  purpose  of  a  Divine  redemption ;  they 
articulate  the  evangelic  order  of  Divine  Sovereignty.  All  is  Love 
and  all  is  Law.  The  enunciation  of  this  evangel  in  the  speech 
of  Jesus  and  its  embodiment  in  immortal  acts,  discovered  to  man 
the  might  of  God's  Kingdom  and  of  Satan's  overthrow. 

7.  The  progressive  revelation  of  the  real  mission  of  Jesus  was 
accompanied  by  the  graduated  announcement  of  His  authority. 
He  was  conscious  of  being  possessed  by  the  Divine  Spirit;  and 
not  only  did  He  speak  with  absolute  certitude,  but  He  even 
identified  Himself  with  the  truth  He  taught.  Such  authority 
might  easily  be  misconstrued  and  misrepresented ;  and  it  is  cred- 
ible that  Herod,  learning  of  the  impression  Jesus  was  creating, 
may  have  spoken  some  menace :  whether  he  did  so  or  not,  some 
of  the  Pharisees  pretended  to  warn  Jesus  that  Herod  designed 
to  kill  Him.  But  Jesus  was  not  to  be  intimidated  either  by 
rumours  of  the  crafty  tetrarch,  or  by  the  overt  hostility  of  those 
who  watched  for  His  fall ;  in  a  prophetic  strain  He  announced  His 
own  intention  of  working  in  Peraea  "  today  and  tomorrow  " — 
i.e.  a  short  time  longer:  then  He  would  return  to  Jerusalem  to 
receive  a  prophet's  doom.  The  Ministry  of  Jesus  proceeded 
along  predestined  lines ;  He  was  no  unwilling  victim,  led  unseeing 
to  the  shambles ;  He  foresaw  the  end,  and  could  not  be  hurried 
into  panic.  Slowly  He  was  prepared  as  an  instrument  passing 
through  successive  stages  of  refinement,  "  and  the  third  day  "  said 
Jesus,  "  I  am  perfected."  He  had  no  fear  of  "  that  fox  "  (Herod)  ; 
for  He  says,  with  blasting  irony,  John's  death  at  Machaerus  was 
an  exception — Jerusalem  was  murder's  home.  The  Peraean  vision 
of  Lucifer's  lightning-like  fall  was  not  incompatible  with  the 


214    The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

fore-view  of  the  final  scenes  of  His  Ministry.  The  self-conscious- 
ness of  His  authority  was  only  one  element  in  the  preparation 
of  His  complete  humanity ;  although  He  was  aware  of  the  dogging 
presence  of  spies  and  enemies,  never  once  was  He  betrayed  into 
an  act  which  could  be  charged  against  Him  as  a  moral  fault. 

8.  The  readiness  of  men  to  misconstrue  His  authority  by 
making  it  something  political  or  legal,  opened  up  alluring  visions 
to  the  throne  of  temporal  power.  Any  lack  of  certitude  on  the 
part  of  Jesus  as  to  the  real  character  of  His  authority  would 
have  entrapped  Him  in  stultifying  errors ;  but  the  clear,  un- 
deviating  assertion  of  an  authority  purely  spiritual  on  the  part  of 
Jesus  comes  out  in  His  answer  to  a  man  who  appealed  to  Him 
to  arbitrate  in  some  dispute  with  a  brother  over  some  property. 
"  Man,"  said  Jesus,  "  who  made  Me  a  judge,  or  divider  over 
you?"  The  conflict  between  the  Jews  and  Jesus  was  precipi- 
tated by  His  refusal  to  exercise  the  authority  of  a  political 
Messiah ;  they  despised  Him  as  a  mere  dreamer  of  ideals.  The 
authority  of  Jesus  was  understood  by  Himself  to  be  the  illumining 
power  of  His  Truth,  the  force  of  right  over  wrong,  the  influence 
of  Pity  disclosed  in  Godlike  humanity.  He  wielded  the  authority 
of  the  Physician  over  the  sick,  of  the  Good  Shepherd  over  wan- 
dering sheep,  of  the  Saviour  over  the  sinner.  Jesus  took  up  the 
prophetic  ideal  of  the  Jews;  purged  it  of  the  stains  of  racial 
hate,  freed  it  from  the  narrowness  of  nationalism,  and  made  it 
as  wide  as  Humanity.  And  at  every  stage  of  the  world's  evangel- 
ization. His  followers  do  well  to  avoid  the  misinterpretation  of 
His  authority:  Christian  missions  cannot  be  supported  by  gun- 
boats; nor  should  converts  be  protected  by  the  missionary's  as- 
sumption of  temporal  power.  Jesus  fought  against  the  material- 
ism of  His  age,  and  announced  that  what  counts  with  God  is  not 
a  formal  or  traditional  piety,  but  the  spring  of  true  humanity 
in  the  heart.  The  conflict  was  severe ;  already  Galilee  had  re- 
jected Him ;  Jerusalem  had  excommunicated  Him ;  and  now,  in 
Peraea,  His  enemies  sought  to  urge  Him  into  panic ;  but  He  fore- 
saw that  the  struggle  was  predestined  to  end  at  Jerusalem,  and 
that  His  own  tragic  fate  would  secure  the  realization  of  His 
vision  of  Satan  falling  from  Heaven  as  lightning. 


CHAPTER  IV    • 

THE  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS 

I.  We  shall  venture  to  transpose  the  miracle  of  the  raising  of 
Lazarus,  withdrawing  it  from  its  place  among  the  closing  scenes, 
and  placing  it  in  the  middle  period  of  Christ's  Ministry.  But,  be- 
fore stating  our  reasons  for  such  a  contravention  of  popular 
opinion,  it  appears  needful  to  pass  certain  introductory  remarks 
upon  the  character  of  the  miracle  and  its  possibility;  since,  if 
such  a  recall  of  a  dead  man  to  life  actually  occurred,  it  must  be 
looked  upon  as  the  supreme  instance  of  Christ's  marvellous 
power.  To  recapitulate  our  previous  "  findings  "  in  the  study 
of  miracles,  which  are  frankly  acknowledged  to  be  the  burden 
of  faith  today,  we  see  that  they  fit  in  with  the  impression  made 
by  the  Personality  of  Jesus;  in  fact,  they  contribute  toward  the 
forming  of  that  impression  of  Jesus  as  man's  Helper  and  Healer, 
and  afford  us  parables  of  His  Ministry  in  the  realm  of  spirit. 
These  miracles  are  answers  to  prayer, — the  outflow  and  con- 
sequence of  the  uniting  of  the  Soul  of  Jesus  with  the  ultimate 
Divine  Power  which  produces  the  world  of  Nature.  The  ra- 
tionale of  Christ's  miracles  lies,  as  Dr.  Sanday  says,^  "  within  the 
bounds  of  personality,  of  character  and  of  will ;  "  and  "  miracle  is 
not  really  a  breach  of  the  order  of  Nature ;  it  is  only  an  apparent 
breach  of  laws  that  we  know  in  obedience  to  other  and  higher  laws 
that  we  do  not  know."  It  is  most  presumptuous  dogmatism  to 
identify  God's  whole  world-purpose  with  the  laws  or  uniformities 
of  Nature  known  to  us,  and  then  deny  the  transcendent  and  con- 
trolling activity  of  His  will.  Impelled  by  the  desire  to  include 
everything  in  one  symmetrical  system  of  philosophy,  Spinoza 
adopted  the  course  of  identifying  God  with  Nature  and  denying 
all  Divine  transcendence,  concluding  that  "  a  miracle,  whether 
contrary  to  or  above  Nature,  is  a  sheer  absurdity."  And  yet  so 
impressed  was  he  with  the  stupendous  grandeur  of  the  account  of 
the  raising  of  Lazarus,  that  he  said  if  he  could  be  assured  of  its 
historical  truth  he  would  burn  all  his  manuscripts.  The  philos- 
opher's instinct  was  correct;  this  miracle  is  supremely  offensive 
*  The  Life  of  Christ  in  Recent  Research. 
215 


216    The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

to  rationalism.  Jairus'  daughter  may  be  suspected  to  have  fallen 
into  a  trance,  the  son  of  the  widow  of  Nain  might  have  been  the 
victim  of  premature  obsequies :  but  the  representation  of  the 
death  of  Lazarus  leaves  no  room  for  the  conjecture  that  he  may 
simply  have  swooned.  With  regard  to  the  criticisms  directed 
against  the  historicity  of  this  tale,  it  cannot  be  treated  as  a 
variant  report  of  the  parable  of  Dives  and  Lazarus ;  while,  of  the 
critic  who  suggests  that  it  is  a  free  invention  of  the  second  cen- 
tury, we  exclaim,  "  Ephraim  is  joined  to  idols.    Let  him  alone !  " 

2.  But  if  the  raising  of  Lazarus  be  historical,  how  comes  it 
that  the  earlier  evangelists  make  never  the  slightest  allusion  to 
it?  Our  answer  to  this  pertinent  inquiry  may  be  prefaced  by 
repeating  once  more  the  oft-forgotten  reflection  that  the  silence 
of  one  ancient  author  must  never  be  looked  upon  as  a  virtual 
refutation  of  the  positive  statement  of  another  writer.  Even 
when  an  omission  yields  the  greatest  surprise  and  is  deemed 
inexplicable,  it  can  never  be  treated  as  adequate  disproof.  In 
our  sketch  of  the  natural  history  of  the  Gospels  we  found  reason 
for  believing  that  the  main  stream  of  evangelic  tradition  found 
entrance  into  the  early  writings  without  material  modification ;  we 
accept  as  probable  the  patristic  belief  that  St.  Mark  owed  his 
account  to  the  report  of  the  Apostle  Peter.  That  Simon  Peter 
should  omit  the  story  of  this  miracle,  suggests  that  he  was  not 
among  the  witnesses  of  it ;  for  had  that  impetuous  leader  of  the 
Disciple  Circle  been  with  Jesus  in  Persea,  surely  he  would  have 
forestalled  Thomas'  brave  pessimism,  and  have  been  the  one  to 
say,  "  Let  us  go  with  Him,  though  we  die !  "  Such  absence  is 
explained  if  the  Persean  ministry  was  concurrent  in  part  with  the 
disciples'  Galilean  mission ;  although  some  of  them  had  returned 
to  accompany  their  Lord,  Simon  Peter  may  have  been  still  en- 
gaged in  the  mission  in  the  north.  It  cannot  be  said  that  St. 
Mark  left  this  story  out  of  the  Gospel  "  because  it  did  not  fit  in 
with  his  doctrinal  scheme,"  for  it  is  in  completest  harmony  with 
the  august  and  imperial  figure  of  the  Wonder-worker  given  by 
the  earliest  evangelist.  Dr.  Westcott  has  sought  to  lessen  the 
adverse  impression  made  by  St.  Mark's  omission  by  suggesting 
that  "  for  us  the  incident,  as  an  external  fact,  has  naturally  a 
relative  importance  far  greater  than  it  had  for  the  evangelists. 
For  them,  as  for  the  Jews,  it  was  one  of  many  signs  ^  and  not 

*John  xi.  47. 


■    The  Raising  of  Lazarus  217 

essentially  distinguished  from  them.  The  entry  into  Jerusalem 
was  the  decisive  event  in  which  the  issue  of  all  Christ's  earlier 
works  was  summed  up.  This,  therefore,  the  Synoptists  record. 
For  St.  John,  however,  the  raising  of  Lazarus  was,  as  the  other 
miracles,  a  spiritual  revelation.  It  fell  in  then  with  his  plan, 
so  far  as  we  can  discern  it,  to  relate  it  at  length,  while  it  did 
not  fall  in  with  the  common  plan  of  the  Synoptic  Gospels,  which 
excluded  all  record  of  work  at  Jerusalem  till  the  triumphal 
entry."  ^ 

3.  One  of  the  frankest  and  most  fair-minded  of  critics  has 
said  that  "  the  discrepancy  between  the  Fourth  Gospel  and  the 
Synoptic  narrative — i.e.  St.  Mark's  gospel — comes  to  a  head  in  the 
story  of  the  Raising  of  Lazarus."  ^  After  a  cursory  review  of  the 
problem  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  this  writer  concludes  that  the  work 
is  not  history  of  matters  of  fact,  but  a  Christian  philosophy,  cast 
in  an  historical  form.  Such  a  generalization  as  this,  wherever  it 
is  accepted,  makes  all  discussions  of  particular  incidents  utterly 
valueless;  and  yet  such  a  phase  of  criticism  is  more  difficult  to 
meet  than  any  definite  attacks  upon  the  historicity  of  the  miracle 
at  Bethany,  for  it  expresses  an  attitude  of  mind,  a  mood  and 
mental  atmosphere,  rather  than  an  argument.  Perhaps  the  best 
antidote  for  this  poisonous  scepticism  may  be  found  in  the  warn- 
ing implied  in  a  somewhat  remarkable  confession  of  a  distin- 
guished scholar^  in  The  Expositor  (April,  1908),  who,  coming 
to  the  study  of  St.  John's  gospel,  as  he  tells  us,  after  two  years' 
exploration  of  Philo,  the  Talmud  and  The  Apocrypha,  began  with 
the  axiom  that  St.  John  was  not  to  be  regarded  as  an  historical 
authority,  and  ended  with  the  conviction  that  the  axiom  was 
"  condemned  as  an  improbable  fiction."  "  The  more  I  learn  of 
pre-Christian  and  non-Christian  Judaism,  the  more  forcibly  I  was 
convinced  that  his  gospel  was,  in  letter  and  in  spirit,  a  true  pic- 
ture of  our  Lord  as  He  appeared  to  a  disciple  who  was  capable, 
pro  virili  parte,  of  understanding  Him."  A  strong  presumption 
for  the  historical  value  of  this  gospel  arises  as  we  proceed  to  com- 
pare it  with  the  Synoptics ;  for  by  it  the  earlier  traditions  may  be 
supplemented  and  corrected — so,  at  least,  it  appears  to  us;  and, 
moreover,  St.  John  seems  to  give  us  the  antecedents  of  many  of 
the  Synoptic  representations.    After  what  we  have  said  about  the 

*  In  loco. 

'  F.  C.  Burkitt,  The  Gospel  History  and  Its  Transmission,  p.  221. 

•J.  H.  A.  Hart,  M.A. 


218    The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

relationship  of  St.  Paul  to  the  evangelists  in  the  "  Introduction,"  it 
will  bring  no  surprise  that  Professor  Bacon  finds  a  Pauline  in- 
fluence in  the  Fourth  Gospel ;  ^  and  yet  it  cannot  be  readily  ad- 
mitted that  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  is  the  creative  genius  of 
this  gospel,  for  its  author  was  too  original  and  profound  to  be 
dominated  by  any  other  than  the  Lord  Christ.  After  all  that 
advanced  criticism  has  achieved,  "  the  beloved  disciple  "  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel  may  be  as  reasonably  identified  with  the  fisher- 
man of  Galilee,  as  with  an  idealized  figure  of  St.  Paul.  Although 
Peter  and  John  were  described  as  "  unlearned  and  ignorant,"  ^ 
such  adjectives  mark  a  caste  distinction  rather  than  an  intellectual 
state,  and  simply  show  that  the  two  disciples  were  outside  the 
magic  circle  of  the  academic  and  professional  classes.  That  St. 
John  was  a  fisherman  in  nowise  determines  that  he  must  have 
been  uneducated ;  St.  Paul  shows  us  that  a  tent-maker  might  be  a 
scholar  in  Jewish  life,  and  the  practice  of  a  trade  did  not  in  those 
times  debar  one  from  acquaintance  with  letters.  But  sometimes  the 
Fourth  Gospel  is  described  as  "philosophical"  and  "  spiritual"; 
and  if  these  adjectives  are  not  employed  to  diminish  the  degree 
of  historicity  attached  to  the  book,  they  are  sometimes  used  to 
set  forth  the  author's  remoteness  of  thought  from  the  rudimentary 
stages  occupied  by  the  Galilean  fishermen  as  they  are  reflected  in 
the  Gospel  narratives.  It  has  to  be  remembered,  however,  that 
John  was,  in  the  School  of  Jesus,  among  the  earliest  of  the  dis- 
ciples; that  he  received  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  and  that  he  was  sub- 
jected to  the  stern,  purifying  discipline  of  exile  in  Patmos.  For 
these  reasons,  therefore,  we  refuse  to  accept  the  a  priori  assump- 
tion that  the  Fourth  Gospel  cannot  be  a  narrative  of  facts,  but 
must  be  conceived  of  as  an  historical  romance ;  and  we  claim  that 
each  incident  must  be  studied  independently  and  in  all  its  rela- 
tionships as  the  possible  account  of  an  eye-witness. 

4.  Coming,  then,  to  the  narrative  of  the  Raising  of  Lazarus, 
we  are  face  to  face  at  once  with  the  objection  that  the  dialogue 
between  the  sisters  and  Jesus  is  thoroughly  Johannine  in  its  mys- 
tical tone,  and  that  it  is  impossible  to  separate  the  facts  from  the 
philosophy.  In  a  word,  instead  of  supposing  that  this  long  dia- 
logue was  accurately  remembered  so  long  after  its  occurrence, 
it  must  be  accepted  as  largely  imaginative,  although  its  invention 

*  Hibbert  Journal,  Oct.  1907. 

'  aypafifiarol  Koi  i^Lurai  (Acts  iv.  13). 


The  Raising  of  Lazarus  219 

would  be  governed  by  the  author's  historical  idea  of  Jesus.  The 
admission  must  be  made  ungrudgingly  that  our  evangelist  does 
not  write  a  colourless  history,  nor  simply  repeat,  in  the  style  of 
Herodotus,  whatever  was  told  him;  but  everything  in  the  store- 
house of  his  memory  has  been  brooded  over  and  steeped  in  the 
haze  of  his  characteristic  thought  of  Christ.  Over  against  this, 
however,  must  be  placed  our  recognition  of  the  indelible  im- 
pression which  such  a  miracle  must  have  made  upon  the  mind  of 
a  witness,  and  of  the  fact  that  the  leading  ideas  of  the  dialogue 
are  congruous  with  the  whole  picture  of  the  unique  personality 
of  Jesus.  While  we  are  fully  aware  of  the  unconscious  modifica- 
tions which  affect  things  carried  a  long  time  in  one's  memory,  and 
of  the  inevitable  tendency  of  one's  reminiscences  to  become 
blurred  in  their  outlines  as  the  years  recede,  still  with  equal 
psychological  truth  it  may  be  said  that  there  come  to  men  experi- 
ences that  strike  down  so  deeply  into  their  nature  that  they  can 
never  be  radically  changed  in  the  memory,  but  the  main  features 
stand  out  imperishably  in  the  perspective  of  the  years.  A  cer- 
tain corroboration  of  St.  John's  narrative  arises  from  the  fact 
that  his  vivid  portraiture  of  the  different  characters  of  the 
family  at  Bethany  corresponds  with  the  representations  of  St. 
Luke.  The  individuality  of  Martha  is  depicted  with  innate 
truthfulness ;  she  is  the  practical  woman,  with  mind  alert,  even  in 
the  hour  of  bereavement,  when  Mary  sits  absorbed  in  brooding 
grief.  Verisimilitude  shines  out  in  the  remonstrance  of  the  timid 
disciples  at  the  thought  of  returning  to  Judaea,  where  Jesus  had 
been  recently  threatened  with  stoning,  as  also  from  the  despond- 
ence and  noble  loyalty  of  Thomas.  Unconscious  touches  of  na- 
ture are  scattered  undesignedly  over  the  narrative;  we  seem  to 
overhear  the  sisters'  oft-repeated  regret  that  Jesus  had  not  come 
before:  then,  how  convincing  is  the  alarm  of  Martha  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  exposing  the  body  of  her  brother  after  it  had  begun  to 
decay!  There  is  also  a  simple  dignity  in  the  restraint  of  the 
narrative,  which  is  never  once  imperilled  by  over-emphasis  or 
exaggeration;  here  are  no  conjectures  about  the  deceased,  no 
rhetoric  about  the  sorrow,  and  no  word  about  the  welcome  and 
rapture  the  resurrection  evoked.  The  Evangelist  has  left  it  to 
the  modern  poet  to  ask,  "  Where  wert  thou,  brother,  those  four 
days?"  He  has  anticipated  no  answer.  If  we  reject  the  his- 
toricity of  this  narrative,  we  must  postulate  the  existence  of  some 
great  unknown  artist  in  the  primitive  Church,  who  could  create 


220    The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

living  characters  in  a  book  of  fiction,  write  with  balanced  dignity 
and  unaffected  pathos,  and  never  once  slide  into  exaggeration 
nor  indulge  in  fruitless  fancies  or  speculations.  Even  the  most 
advanced  critic  must  feel  it  almost  as  difficult  to  conjure  up  this 
hypothetic  literary  artist  as  it  would  be  to  believe  that  John,  the 
Beloved  Disciple  and  quondam  fisherman,  wrote  the  book.  We 
have  remarked  upon  the  congruity  of  the  narrative  with  the 
impression  of  Jesus  possessed  by  the  Church ;  and  to  this  should 
be  joined  the  reflection  that,  if  He  actually  owned  the  authority 
( e^ovaia)  He  professed,  then  the  raising  of  Lazarus  is  as 
adequate  an  expression  of  it  as  any  miracle  recorded  in  the 
Gospels. 

5.  No  one  fails  to  see  that  the  author  intends  his  readers  to 
believe  that  the  raising  of  Lazarus  had  a  potent  and  determinative 
influence  upon  all  the  events  that  followed.  It  is  the  hinge  upon 
which  the  final  catastrophe  turned,  since  it  occasioned  the  calling 
of  the  Sanhedrim  and  the  precipitation  of  the  fatal  word  through 
Caiaphas  which  gave  shape  to  subsequent  intrigues  and  dramatic 
intensity  to  the  pursuit  of  one  object  by  the  counsellors — viz.,  to 
kill  Jesus  and  Lazarus  with  Him.  We  have  observed  that  the 
Marcan  tradition  affords  the  ground-plan  of  the  Synoptics,  and  a 
very  little  attention  to  chronology  makes  the  reader  acutely  con- 
scious of  the  difficulty  of  finding  a  place  in  this  framework  for 
the  stupendous  Miracle  at  Bethany.  Most  of  the  scholars  who 
accept  the  historicity  of  St.  John's  story  simply  cut  the  Gordian 
knot,  and  assume  that  the  miracle  was  transacted  within  the 
last  four  months  of  Christ's  Ministry.  And  yet  at  what  interval 
in  St.  Mark's  narrative,  from  the  Transfiguration  to  the  Messianic 
entry  into  Jerusalem  on  Palm  Sunday,  can  any  room  be  found 
for  the  raising  of  Lazarus  ?  In  the  Fourth  Gospel  the  successive 
steps  in  the  drama  appear  to  be  so  clearly  articulated  and  to 
follow  each  other  with  tragic  swiftness  to  the  close,  that  readers 
have  felt  but  little  temptation  to  attempt  a  transposition  of  events. 
Professor  Burkitt  curtly  concludes  that  there  is  no  room  for  this 
miracle  in  the  historical  framework  preserved  by  St.  Mark. 
"  Must  not  the  answer  be,  that  Mark  is  silent  about  the  Raising 
of  Lazarus  because  he  did  not  know  of  it?  And  if  he  did  not 
know  of  it,  can  we  believe  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  ever  oc- 
curred ?  For  all  its  dramatic  setting  it  is,  I  am  persuaded,  impos- 
sible to  regard  the  story  of  the  Raising  of  Lazarus  as  a  narrative 


The  Raising  of  Lazarus  221 

of  historical  events."  ^  But  if  the  problem  is  simply  one  of  time 
and  place,  and  the  mind  is  free  from  a  priori  impressions  about 
the  impossibility  of  the  miracle,  we  may  at  least  consider  the 
transposing  of  the  incidents  before  accepting  this  desperate  nega- 
tion as  the  only  escape  from  a  perplexing  dilemma. 

6.  As  already  stated,  little  reliance  should  be  placed  on  the 
chronological  terms  of  the  Fourth  Gospel ;  for  it  is  dominated 
throughout  by  a  theological  plan.  The  writer's  aim  is  to  set 
forth  the  Incarnate  Word  as  the  Source  of  Life,  the  supporting 
Bread  which  comes  down  from  Heaven,  the  Light  of  Life  and 
the  Revelation  of  Divine  Love ;  and  he  has  chosen  the  discourses 
and  miracles  in  order  to  illustrate  these  various  aspects  of  the 
Logos- Son.  Some  will  judge  that  such  an  arbitrary  placing  of 
the  incidents  must  detract  much  from  the  historicity  of  the  nar- 
ratives; and  yet  we  do  not  refuse  St.  Matthew's  account  of  the 
life  of  Jesus  because  he  has  been  influenced  perceptibly  by  topical 
affinities.  We  are  justified,  however,  after  recognizing  St.  John's 
ideal  presentment  of  the  Incarnate  Christ,  in  treating  the  ma- 
terials of  this  gospel  as  integrable  in  a  synthesis,  or  tentative 
chronology,  which  shall  include  the  special  contributions  of  all  the 
Gospels.  In  regard  to  the  particular  story  of  Lazarus,  a  fresh 
consideration  of  slight  indications  in  the  narrative  itself  makes 
it  at  least  plausible  that  the  subsequent  events  of  Christ's  Minis- 
try covered  more  than  a  year  instead  of  only  four  months.  The 
emphatic  and  repeated  mention  of  Caiaphas  as  the  high-priest 
that  year  is  supposed  to  imply  that  he  offered  Jesus  as  the  Pass- 
over Lamb  within  the  next  four  months;  we  regard  the  sinister 
accentuation,  however,  as  falling  simply  upon  the  name  of  the 
high-priest  who  wielded  such  a  malign  influence  at  that  time. 
From  the  Synoptics  we  learn  that,  after  the  middle  of  Christ's 
Ministry,  great  popular  disappointment  was  felt  and  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  determined  secession.  But  the  narrative  of  the 
Raising  of  Lazarus  gives  no  evidence  of  Christ's  waning  influence ; 
at  that  time  His  influence  over  the  common  people  was  so  great 
and  still  increasing,  that  the  Sanhedrim  feared  lest  the  whole 
nation  should  be  caught  in  the  contagion  of  enthusiasm.  The 
criticism  that  there  is  no  room  for  the  Raising  of  Lazarus  within 
the  Synoptic  framework  if  the  story  be  placed  in  the  narrative  of 
the  few  last  months,  appears  a  just  one,  and  it  seems  likewise 
*  The  Gospel  History,  p.  223. 


222  The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy- 
true  that  to  locate  the  incident  at  the  termination  of  Christ's 
Ministry  leaves  no  room  for  such  an  ebbing  of  popular  feeling 
toward  Jesus  as  the  Synoptists  report.  The  proper  place  of  the 
miracle  is  found  when  we  suppose  it  to  occur  immediately  before 
the  second  and  middle  Passover  of  Christ's  Ministry;  and  such 
a  transposition  is  not  merely  the  result  of  guesswork,  but  an 
inference  deduced  from  the  narrative  itself.  That  the  Passover 
immediately  following  the  Raising  of  Lazarus  was  not  the  final 
one  may  be  presumed  from  the  absence  of  Jesus  in  the  days  of 
purification  and  possibly  from  the  feast  itself.  We  learn  that 
the  Jews  sought  for  Him  in  vain  and  asked  one  of  another, 
"What  think  ye,  that  He  will  not  come  to  the  feast?  "^  In 
order  to  escape  the  hostility  of  the  Sanhedrim  and  the  excite- 
ment of  the  people  St.  John  tells  us  that  Jesus  "  departed  thence 
into  the  country  near  to  the  wilderness,  into  a  city  called  Eph- 
raim."  The  attempts  to  identify  this  town  have  not  been  success- 
ful ;  but  the  mere  detail  of  topography  is  of  less  moment  than  the 
certainty  of  the  Master's  absence  from  Jerusalem  at  the  time  of 
the  Passover,  or  during  the  days  when  pilgrims  went  up  to  purify 
themselves.  But  the  final  Passover  it  could  not  have  been ;  for 
at  that  Jesus  was  present,  and  on  the  previous  Palm  Sunday  He 
had  made  His  public  entry  into  the  city,  and  on  succeeding  days 
He  carried  on  His  Ministry  in  the  precincts  of  the  temple.  No 
question  could  have  been  raised  then  as  to  His  coming — neither  in 
the  aorist  nor  in  the  future  tense ;  but  such  uncertainty  as  to 
whether  Jesus  would  arrive  or  not,  was  quite  natural  at  the  time 
of  the  previous  Passover,^  for  Jesus  was  then  at  some  desert 
place,  where  He  fed  the  multitudes.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
Professor  Briggs  makes  the  transposition  of  these  two  events,  but 
retains  the  idea  that  both  occurred  in  the  last  few  months  before 
the  last  Passover ;  ^  but  it  does  not  seem  feasible  or  probable  that 
two  comparatively  long  journeys  *  should  have  been  made,  that 
the  feeling  of  the  people  toward  Jesus  should  be  utterly  changed, 
that  many  of  the  most  important  miracles  should  be  crowded  to- 
gether, and  all  the  momentous  teaching  from  the  sublime  sayings 
at  the  tomb  near  Bethany  to  the  parousia  discourse  of  the 
Passion-week,    should    have    been   crowded    into    the   last    four 

^John  xi.  56,  iWy  not  iXeiaeTai;  although  the  aorist  might  be  used  for  the 
future. 
2  John  vi.  4. 

^C.  A.  Briggs,  New  Light,  p.  153. 
*Mark  vii.  24-31;  vii.  27. 


The  Raising  of  Lazarus  223 

months  of  Christ's  Ministry.  If  we  make  the  transposition  of  the 
two  miracles — the  Raising  of  Lazarus  and  the  Feeding  of  the 
Multitudes — and  interpolate  the  Johannine  story  into  the  his- 
torical framework  of  St.  Mark,  we  must  extend  the  time  a  whole 
year.  By  so  doing  we  shall  secure  those  intervals  devoted  by 
the  Master  to  the  special  training  of  the  Twelve,  and  find  a  cer- 
tain balance  and  harmony  in  our  reconstructed  picture  of  His 
Ministry. 

7.  Our  justification  for  such  tentative  changes  in  the  chron- 
ological plan  of  St.  John's  gospel  is  that  they  make  room  for  the 
Raising  of  Lazarus,  and  enable  us  to  think  of  the  story  as  his- 
torical and  so  integrate  its  contribution  into  our  impression  of 
Jesus.  At  least,  we  are  able  to  review  St.  John's  narrative  of  this 
miracle  without  latent  or  insurgent  prejudice  against  its  credi- 
bility; and  this  we  shall  now  proceed  to  do.  While  Jesus  was 
pursuing  His  Peraean  Mission,  a  message  reached  Him  from 
friends  at  Bethany :  "  Lord,  behold  he  whom  Thou  lovest  is  sick." 
We  know  but  little  of  Christ's  private  intercourse  with  friends; 
at  most  our  materials  are  but  fragmentary  reminiscences  of  Him. 
Perhaps  our  most  reverent  imaginings  concerning  the  inner  his- 
tory of  the  heart  of  Jesus  might  be  profitably  suppressed;  and 
yet  in  the  interests  of  His  perfect  humanity,  the  suggestion  may 
be  pardoned  that  toward  Mary  of  Bethany  He  felt  a  peculiarly 
tender  affection.  It  was,  however,  a  part  of  His  cross  to  forego  all 
thought  of  domestic  felicity ;  all  private  afifections  were  volun- 
tarily subordinated  to  the  wider  claims  of  His  public  love  for  the 
humanity  in  every  individual.  To  the  bearer  of  the  sad  mes- 
sage Jesus  gave  an  answer  that  seems  superficially  discordant 
with  the  facts :  "  This  sickness  is  not  unto  death ;  it  is  for  the 
glory  of  God,  that  the  Son  of  God  may  be  glorified  through  it." 
Jesus  felt  that  His  work  in  Peraea  was  too  important  to  be 
abruptly  abandoned  at  the  appeal  of  private  friendship;  He  was 
guilty  of  no  lack  of  tenderness,  but  He  trusted  Himself  to  the 
inner  guidance  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  after  praying  for  His 
sick  friend  the  inward  prompting  came  to  return  to  Bethany. 
In  these  days,  when  telepathy  is  a  recognized  part  of  psychic 
phenomena,  there  should  be  no  incredulity  concerning  the  state- 
ment that  Jesus  knew  that  Lazarus  had  "  fallen  asleep."  In  the 
deepest  experiences  of  prayer,  the  soul  realizes  a  perfect  junction 
of  the  planes  of  consciousness  described  as  higher  and  lower, 


224    The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

or  spiritual  and  material;  and,  knowing  this,  we  think  it  not  at 
all  improbable  that  Jesus  received  the  conviction  that  the  Father 
should  enable  Him  to  recall  Lazarus  from  that  realm  into  which 
death  is  one  of  the  entrances.  But  when  He  proposed  to  go  to 
Bethany,  the  disciples  who  were  with  Him  were  alarmed  and 
sought  to  dissuade  Him :  "  Rabbi,  the  Jews  sought  but  recently 
to  stone  Thee !  And  art  Thou  going  thither  again  ?  "  Jesus  once 
again  reiterated  His  absolute  trust  in  the  Divine  plan;  and  since 
His  life  was  marked  out  as  a  day  of  twelve  hours,  He  had  no  fear 
of  stumbling,  and  no  enemies  could  harm  Him  till  His  hour  had 
come.  The  ambiguity  of  Jesus'  metaphor  of  sleep  for  the  fact  of 
death  having  been  defined,  Thomas,  perceiving  the  unwavering 
resolution  of  Jesus,  stoically  exclaimed,  "  Let  us  go  too,  that  we 
may  die  with  Him !  " 

8.  When  Martha  heard  that  Jesus  was  coming,  she  came  out 
to  meet  Him,  while  Mary  sat  unheeding  in  the  house.  The  greet- 
ing offered  by  the  dead  man's  sister  was  a  lament  that  He  who 
had  power  to  heal  the  sick  had  not  been  at  Bethany :  "  Lord, 
hadst  Thou  been  here,  my  brother  would  not  have  died."  Ac- 
cording to  St.  John,  Jesus  answered  and  said,  "  I  am  the  resur- 
rection and  the  life :  he  that  believeth  in  Me,  though  he  were  dead, 
yet  shall  he  live :  and  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  in  Me  shall 
never  die."  All  former  hints  and  disclosures  of  His  authority  are 
thus  summed  up  in  the  highest  claim  ever  made  by  man ;  and  after 
the  passing  of  many  centuries,  and  with  all  the  light  that  can  be 
thrown  upon  the  words  of  Jesus,  our  understandings  are  too 
limited  to  sound  the  fulness  of  meaning  implied  in  this  utterance. 
Scepticism  concerning  its  authenticity  springs  spontaneously  in 
many  minds ;  for  it  is  sometimes  hard  to  believe  that  the  Man 
Jesus  really  made  such  claims.  The  best  antidote  for  this  con- 
temporary rationalism  that  besets  us  as  an  atmosphere  is  found 
in  reflection  upon  the  fact  of  the  influence  of  Jesus  in  all  the 
succeeding  ages.  Had  He  actually  anticipated  His  own  post- 
humous and  immortal  achievements  in  the  experiences  of  be- 
lievers and  in  the  history  of  Christendom,  He  could  not  have 
spoken  a  more  accurate  prophecy.  Our  instinctive  repugnance  to 
the  supernatural  ought  not  to  be  treated  as  a  serious  objection  to 
a  doctrine  of  transcendence ;  rather  should  it  be  held  in  check, 
that  the  mind  may  judge  without  prejudice.  Should  it  come  to 
be  understood  that  this  claim  is  the  Johannine  illation  from  the 


The  Raising  of  Lazarus  225 

operation  of  Christ's  influence,  still  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
Jesus  Himself  originated  impressions  which  made  it  possible  to 
attach  this  stupendous  egoism  to  Him.  And  supposing  Jesus 
really  were  all  that  is  claimed  here,  His  self-affirmation  of  the 
truth  might  cut  across  all  the  prejudices  of  Naturalism,  and  yet  it 
would  have  been  inevitable  that  He  should  make  Himself  known. 
After  all,  I  know  not  if  the  highest  reason  does  not  reveal  itself 
in  the  most  naive  faith.  Jesus  demonstrates  that  He  is  in  touch 
with  the  whole  human  race;  He  penetrates  into  the  subliminal 
abysses  of  personality ;  He  raises  and  quickens  the  souls  of  men. 
Martha  supposed  that  Jesus  spoke  of  a  remote  resurrection  be- 
longing to  the  cycle  of  Jewish  eschatological  ideas  prevalent  at 
that  time ;  but  she  advanced  from  Judaism  to  a  form  of  Christian 
belief  by  acknowledging  that  Jesus  was  the  Messiah  through 
whom  all  their  national  and  spiritual  hopes  were  to  come  to  pass. 
Dr.  Hort  states  the  case  with  his  characteristic  luminous  sugges- 
tiveness :  "  On  the  one  side  were  the  jealous  individual  attach- 
ment which  claimed  the  Lord  only  for  herself  and  her  brother,  and 
the  confidence  in  His  power  to  prevail  with  God  which  assumed 
that  His  advocacy  would  be  set  in  motion  in  like  manner  by  indi- 
vidual friendship  rather  than  by  all-embracing  allegiance  to  the 
Father's  Will ;  on  the  other  was  the  languid  expectation,  accepted 
passively  from  the  prevailing  creed  that  in  some  distant  time  her 
brother  should  rise  again,  and  the  inability  to  be  satisfied  with  a 
promise  too  widely  detached  from  the  sorrowful  present  to 
aflfect  deeply  the  sense  of  death  within.  Both  sets  of  feelings 
were  purified  and  enlarged  together.  The  personal  attachment 
was  expanded  into  a  faith  which  could  recognize  the  individual 
heart's  Lord  as  the  Universal  Lord:  the  torpid  expectation  was 
quickened  into  a  living  hope  by  becoming  rooted  in  a  personal 
faith."  1 

9.  At  the  Master's  bidding  Mary  was  called,  and,  seeing  her 
rise,  the  mourners  followed,  thinking  that  she  was  going  to  the 
grave  to  weep  there.  Falling  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  the  stricken 
woman  repeated  her  sister's  lament,  "  Lord,  hadst  Thou  been  here, 
my  brother  would  not  have  died !  "  Her  grief  and  the  cries  of 
the  mourners  smote  the  sensitive  heart  of  Jesus  with  sore  trouble. 
The  Evangelist  uses  a  phrase  describing  Jesus  as  indignant 
{ivs^pijXTfGaro  rep  Ttvsvfxari) ;  but  the  enigmatic  word  implies 
'  Hort,  The  Way,  The  Truth,  The  Life,  p.  117. 


226    The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

that  the  Master  was  almost  carried  beyond  Himself  by  emo- 
tion, and  to  maintain  His  self-control  He  was  forced  to  repress 
His  Spirit.  Beholding  Him  weep,  the  bystanders  marvelled  at 
Him  and  debated  how  it  was  that  He  could  open  the  eyes  of  the 
blind  man,  and  yet  not  have  been  able  to  save  a  friend  beloved  as 
Lazarus.  The  divinity  we  attribute  to  Jesus  at  least  implies  that 
the  character  of  God  was  mirrored  in  His  life,  although  this 
should  not  diminish  our  feeling  for  His  deep,  true  humanness. 
At  the  grave-side,  Jesus  made  men  know  that  the  Divine  Will 
permitting  the  experience  of  death  is  in  sympathy  with  the  heart 
of  man.  At  His  command  to  roll  away  the  stone  from  the  cave, 
Martha  was  filled  with  dread  at  the  thought  of  exposing  death's 
marred  image ;  but,  with  insistent  gentleness,  Jesus  waved  her 
apprehensions  aside,  repeating  that  if  she  would  only  believe  she 
should  see  the  glory  of  God.  "  Father,"  .He  exclaimed,  "  I  thank 
Thee  that  Thou  art  wont  to  hear  My  prayers.  I  know  that  Thou 
dost  continually  hearken  unto  Me  when  I  call  upon  Thee ;  but  now 
I  address  Thee  thus  because  of  the  multitude  present,  that  they 
seeing  that  Thou  hast  granted  My  desire,  may  believe  and  be  per- 
suaded that  Thou  hast  sent  Me."  No  histrionic  posing  is  here; 
only  a  love  so  mighty  that  He  would  fain  lift  the  witnesses  to 
the  high  level  of  believing  prayer.  Then  in  a  loud  voice  He 
called,  "  Lazarus,  come  forth !  "  The  dead  man  heard  and  rising 
came  forth,  wrapt  about  with  grave-clothes.  Jesus  bade  them 
loose  him  of  his  cerements  and  let  him  go.  Thus  simply  and 
without  elaboration  the  story  of  this  august  miracle  is  recited. 
Lazarus  brings  no  message  from  beyond  the  bourn,  and  the  author 
omits  all  description  of  the  scene  as  the  resuscitated  man  steps 
back  again  into  the  old  sweet  life  of  Bethany. 

10.  This  miracle  was  designed  to  reveal  the  glory  of  God  and 
of  the  Son.  Whatever  we  may  think  of  St.  John's  coordination 
of  these  names,  there  stands  behind  it  the  fact  of  a  mysterious 
ethical  harmony  between  Jesus  and  God.  We  have  felt  the  com- 
pulsion of  history  to  acknowledge  the  colossal  egoism  of  Jesus ; 
but  now,  by  the  side  of  that  phenomenon  of  His  life,  or  at  the 
back  of  it,  we  must  place  His  own  repeated  confessions  that  all 
His  power  was  derivative.  The  transcendent  claims  of  Jesus  to 
supreme  authority  among  men  can  never  be  divorced  from  His 
recurrent  testimony  of  its  derivation  from  the  Father.  His 
miraculous  energy  was  always  ethically  conditioned;  the  Power 


The  Raising  of  Lazarus  227 


'O 


He  wielded  was  the  Will  of  God  flowing  through  the  self-con- 
scious volition  of  a  perfect  man.  It  is  no  solution  of  the  problem 
of  Christ's  Personality  to  connect  the  ideas  of  harmony  with  the 
Heavenly  Father  and  subordination  in  ethical  purpose,  but  both 
these  are  factors  to  be  acknowledged  in  every  balanced  statement 
of  the  problem.  We  suspect  that  the  clues  of  many  profound 
things  are  present  in  this  story  of  the  Raising  of  Lazarus.  A 
light  is  flung  upon  the  meaning  of  the  fact  of  sickness  and  pain  in 
the  providential  subjection  of  all  experiences  to  one  supreme  aim 
— the  glory  of  God ;  the  specific  exhibition  of  Divine  glory  in  the 
sphere  of  history  is  the  manifestation  of  the  Son,  in  the  realiza- 
tion of  His  purpose  to  communicate  life,  to  make  suffering  sub- 
servient to  a  sympathy  and  power  to  uplift  man.  This  miracle 
of  resurrection  was  at  once  an  answer  to  the  prayer  of  Jesus 
and  a  concrete  example  of  the  work  He  proposed  to  accomplish 
among  men.  Jesus  is  the  Mediator  of  a  life  which  lifts  man  above 
an  animal  existence;  and  He  completes  the  life  He  imparts  by 
the  quickening  moral  influence  of  His  own  immortal  Personality. 

II.  As  a  Revelation  of  the  Father  and  the  Son,  the  Raising  of 
Lazarus  consummated  a  long  train  of  events  in  the  Ministry 
of  Jesus,  and  swept  many  into  active  belief  in  Him  as  God's 
Anointed ;  other  witnesses,  however,  went  away  and  told  the  news 
to  His  enemies.  A  council  was  hastily  summoned  to  consider 
what  should  be  done  with  Jesus.  The  chief  priests  and  Pharisees 
decided  that  he  ought  to  be  killed;  but  a  few  among  them,  like 
Nicodemus  and  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  protested,  **  What  are  we 
doing?  For  this  man  doeth  many  signs."  The  anger  against 
Jesus  could  not  be  assuaged;  the  hostile  authorities  only  re- 
pHed,  "  H  we  let  Him  go  on  so,  all  will  believe  in  Him!  "  Some 
councillors  expressed  the  dread  lest  Jesus  should  excite  the 
populace  to  an  a"bortive  rising,  and  so  afford  a  pretext  for  Rome 
to  strip  the  Sanhedrim  of  the  last  vestiges  of  its  power.  But 
with  malignant  cynicism  Caiaphas,  who  was  high-priest  that  year, 
pointed  out  that  Jesus,  if  left  alone  for  a  time,  would  inevitably 
transgress  against  the  supremacy  of  Rome,  and  that  then  He 
might  become  a  sacrifice  for  the  nation ;  rudely  ironical,  the  Sad- 
ducean  priest  formulated  his  Machiavellian  policy :  "  You  know 
nothing  at  all.  You  do  not  calculate  that  it  is  for  your  advantage 
that  one  man  should  die  for  the  people,  instead  of  the  whole 
nation  perishing."     Thus  it  may  be  said  that  the  Raising  of 


228    The  Conflict  Between  Jesus  and  the  Hierarchy 

Lazarus  lost  Jesus  His  own  life.  We  cannot  but  think  that  the 
policy  of  laisser-faire,  advocated  in  this  session  of  the  Sanhedrim, 
first  brought  the  Cross  into  view,  and  gives  the  true  antecedent  to 
Christ's  repeated  utterances  about  His  coming  fate ;  also,  it  seems 
a  corroborative  demand  for  a  longer  time  than  four  months 
(sixteen  months  gives  ample  time)  for  the  working  out  of  such 
a  scheme  to  its  consummation.  The  high-priest  who  shaped  this 
policy  was  a  stern,  clever,  ambitious  man ;  in  his  view,  Jesus  was 
but  a  pawn  on  the  chess-board  of  contemporary  history,  and 
even  Rome  might  be  subordinated  to  Jewish  ends.  The  Evangel- 
ist sees,  however,  that  Caiaphas  is  held  in  the  grip  of  a  Power 
greater  than  that  of  earthly  states :  a  spirit  of  prophecy  speaks 
through  him,  and  carries  his  words  far  beyond  his  conscious 
thought;  Jesus  was  indeed  to  die,  not  only  for  the  nation, 
but  for  all  the  children  of  God  that  are  scattered  abroad,  that 
they  might  be  gathered  into  one. 


BOOK  V 

THE  REJECTED  KING 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  FEEDING  OF  THE  MULTITUDE 

I.  Presuming  upon  a  tentative  acceptance  of  the  suggested 
transference  of  the  Raising  of  Lazarus  from  the  termination  to 
the  mid-point  of  His  Ministry,  we  shall  see  that  the  course  of 
Jesus  in  the  subsequent  months  was  in  part  determined  by  the 
unconcealed  hostility  of  the  Sanhedrim.  Caiaphas  had  astutely 
inflamed  this  hatred  of  Jesus,  and  then  had  captivated  the  judge- 
ment of  the  leading  councillors  by  his  malignant  policy  of  laisser- 
faire:  they  adopted  a  waiting  attitude,  pursuing  Jesus  with  vigilant 
espionage,  hoping  that  this  unauthorized  Rabbi  would  speedily 
commit  Himself  in  word  or  deed,  so  that  He  might  be  accused 
of  treason  against  Roman  suzerainty.  The  peril  of  Jesus  at  this 
time  lay  not  in  Himself,  but  in  the  restless  patriotism  and  political 
Messianism  of  many  of  His  adherents  and  admirers ;  for,  however 
careful  the  watch  He  set  upon  His  own  lips,  who  was  able  to 
control  and  restrain  the  rashness  and  wild  schemes  of  these  fol- 
lowers? The  time  had  not  yet  come  for  His  full  self-manifesta- 
tion ;  the  minds  of  His  disciples  needed  further  education  and  the 
substitution  of  His  spiritual  ideas  for  their  materialistic  national- 
ism, hence  it  was  necessary  that  He  should  find  privacy  and 
leisure  for  this  work  of  preparation.  Feeling  that  His  mission 
itself  was  in  danger  lest  His  chosen  followers  should  be  precipi- 
tated into  some  reckless  intrigue  or  revolt,  Jesus  left  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Jerusalem,  going  first  "  into  a  country  near  to  the  wil- 
derness, into  a  city  called  Ephraim,  and  there  continued  with  His 
disciples."  ^  Our  knowledge  of  the  topography  of  this  itineration 
is  as  slender  as  it  is  uncertain,  but  mention  may  be  made  of 
Robinson's  suggestion  that  the  place  designated  may  have  been 
Ophrah,  a  town  four  miles  northeast  of  Bethel,  about  fourteen 
miles  from  Jerusalem.  This  conjecture  has  the  support  of 
Josephus,  who  has  written  of  a  small  fort  at  the  north  of  Judaea, 
called  Ephraim  and  connects  it  with  Bethel.^  The  characteristic 
of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  henceforth  is  that  of  increasing  ex- 

*John   xi.   54-57.  'Jewish  War,  iv.  ix.  9. 

231 


232  The  Rejected  King 

plicitness  and  emphasis  upon  the  Messianic  yet  spiritual  nature  of 
His  vocation.  Until  this  period  He  had  refrained  from  all  public 
avowals  of  His  Messiahship,  having  sought  from  the  beginning 
to  transform  the  ideals  cherished  alike  by  His  disciples  and  the 
people.  His  use  of  the  title  "  Son  of  Man  "  and  His  own  ex- 
pressed consciousness  of  Divine  Sonship  had  made  it  possible 
for  Him  to  adopt  the  wavering  belief  that  He  Himself  was  to 
fulfil  the  prophetic  oracles  relating  to  the  Messiah,  without  sanc- 
tioning the  general  misunderstanding  of  the  Messiah's  work, 

2.  Although  the  people  attributed  to  Jesus  the  authority  of  a 
great  rabbi,  the  leaders  of  national  life  treated  Him  as  one 
excommunicated ;  and  largely  in  consequence  of  this,  as  also  the 
result  in  part  of  His  longing  for  privacy,  the  Master  was  forced 
into  a  life  of  wandering.  If  it  be  not  too  bold  we  would  transpose 
to  this  period  His  journey  through  Samaria  and  the  memorable 
meeting  and  dialogue  with  "  the  woman  at  the  well."  ^  It  was 
probably  at  noonday,  not  as  some  suppose  at  evening,  when  Jesus 
rested  near  the  city  of  Sychar.  If  the  great  hours  of  life  are 
those  which  register  the  uprising  of  noble  thoughts,  when  the 
world  becomes  translucent,  and  waves  of  profound  feeling  roll 
over  one's  soul,  then  this  must  be  adjudged  one  of  the  great  hours 
in  the  Ministry  of  Jesus.  While  fact  and  interpretation  are  inex- 
tricably mingled  in  St.  John's  record,  and  many  go  so  far  as  to 
doubt  its  historicity,  yet  not  only  does  the  dialogue  run  counter  to 
every  natural  anticipation  of  what  should  have  been  likely,  but 
there  seems  to  be  no  adequate  motive  for  the  free  invention  of 
this  story.  The  simplest  theory  is  that  it  is  true.  There  is  no 
need  to  trace  out  all  the  windings  of  thought  in  Christ's  con- 
verse; it  is  familiar  to  everyone.  We  note,  as  characteristic 
of  the  Master's  behaviour,  that  He  passes  with  swift  ease  from 
an  ordinary  request  for  a  draught  of  water  to  utterances  which 
stir  the  sleeping  conscience  of  the  woman.  When  she  seeks  to 
escape  the  embarrassment  of  reflections  about  her  own  life  by 
allusion  to  the  contemporary  controversy  between  Samaritan  and 
Jew,  the  Great  Rabbi  throws  out  the  truths  which  have  orbed 
themselves  with  perfect  lucidity  in  His  own  mind,  and  which,  in 
the  measure  of  their  acceptance,  destroy  forever  the  old  narrow 
prejudices  of  Judaistic  orthodoxy.  While  He  acknowledges  His 
Jewish  birth,  He  abnegates  the  bitter  pride  of  race  and  claims  to 

•John  iv.  1-42.. 


The  Feeding  of  the  Multitude  233 

belong  to  the  spiritual  family  of  man ;  in  a  sense  He  Himself  was 
the  flower  of  the  Hebrew  Spirit,  but  such  efflorescence  was  the 
birth  of  a  new,  broad  humanity.  Truly  His  words  "  seem  to 
breathe  the  Spirit  of  other  worlds  than  ours — of  worlds  whose 
course  is  equable  and  pure." 

"  Believe  me,  woman,  the  hour  is  coming 
When  neither  at  Jerusalem,  nor  in  this  mountain, 
Shall  you  worship  the  Father. 

But  the  hour  is  coming  and  now  is 

When  the  true  worshippers  shall  worship  the  Father  in  spirit  and  truth : 

For  such  indeed  the  Father  seeks  to  be  His  worshippers. 

God  is  Spirit: 

And  they  that  worship  Him  must  worship  in  spirit  and  truth." 

In  this  saying  the  true  Spirit  of  all  religions  has  crystallized  into 
a  perfect,  pellucid  and  profound  philosophy  of  spiritual  worship ; 
it  is  a  logion  which  will  live  so  long  as  man  endures.  By  His 
direct  connection  of  His  claim  to  be  the  Messiah  with  this  uni- 
versal Religion  of  Humanity,  Jesus  purifies,  elevates  and  univer- 
salizes the  Jewish  ideal,  so  that  it  affects  alike  the  interests  of 
every  nation.  Although  His  Personal  Ministry  was  for  the  most 
part  restricted  to  the  Jews,  His  occasional  contact  with  Samaritans 
forever  forbids  the  ascription  of  Jewish  exclusiveness  to  Him. 
By  Jesus'  concentration  upon  the  "  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of 
Israel "  He  conserved  all  that  was  precious  in  a  great  historical, 
providential  preparation ;  but  the  very  intensity  of  His  Humanity 
was  the  irresistible  germ  of  world-wide  catholicity.  His  enemies 
descried  this  motive  force  in  His  teachings,  and  accused  Him 
ironically  of  being  a  Samaritan,  and  sardonically  inquired,  "  Will 
He  go  unto  the  dispersion  among  the  Greeks  and  teach  the 
Greeks?"^ 

3.  After  sojourning  two  days  among  His  Samaritan  in- 
quirers, Jesus  travelled  northwards  into  Galilee ;  and  although  the 
Passover — the  second  Passover  of  His  Ministry — was  drawing 
near.  He  dared  not  return  to  Jerusalem.  His  intention  was  not 
to  resume  His  public  preaching,  but  to  rejoin  His  missionary 
disciples  and  take  them  away  from  exhausting  toils  to  rest,  re- 
cruit and  receive  further  instruction.^  It  must  be  recalled  that 
these  apostles  had  been  carrying  out  their  mission  to  evangelize 
"John  vii.  35.  R.V.  "Mark  vi.  30,  31. 


234  The  Rejected  King 

the  two  hundred  cities  and  villages  of  Galilee  all  this  time,  making 
occasional  excursions  southward  to  their  Rabbi,  then  returning 
again  to  their  missionary  itineration.  St.  Mark  relates  that  the 
Twelve  discharged  their  commission,  and  rejoined  Jesus  upon  His 
coming  back  to  Galilee ;  that  the  kind  eyes  of  the  Master  perceived 
signs  of  weariness,  and  He  therefore  bade  them  "  come  apart 
privately  in  some  desert  place  and  rest."  While  the  account  given 
by  the  third  evangelist  agrees  in  placing  this  retreat  immedi- 
ately after  the  return  of  the  Twelve,  it  suggests  a  different  rea- 
son for  the  retirement  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Bethsaida  Julias. 
Reading  between  the  lines  of  St.  Luke's  gospel,  we  infer  that  the 
Galilean  evangelism,  with  its  watchword  of  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
had  spread  abroad  the  fame  of  Jesus  and  had  excited  the  brave 
populace  with  hopes  that  He  would  become  their  political  leader 
and  deliverer.  Controversies  were  aroused  concerning  Him ;  some 
said  He  was  a  prophet,  either  Elijah  or  John  the  Baptist  returned 
to  life ;  and  a  feature  of  greater  peril  in  this  movement  was  that 
Jesus  involuntarily  became  the  centre  of  plots  and  political  in- 
trigues which  would  be  favoured  by  the  zealots  among  his  own 
disciples ;  hence  "  there  were  many  people  coming  and  going,  and 
they  had  no  time  even  to  eat."  Such  developments  not  only  justi- 
fied the  sagacious  forecast  of  events  made  by  Caiaphas,  but  they 
aroused  dangerous  inquiries  in  the  palace :  "  Herod  was  seeking 
to  see  Jesus,  saying,  '  John  have  I  beheaded ;  but  who  is  this,  of 
whom  I  hear  such  things  ? ' "  For  these  reasons  also  Jesus 
sought  to  escape  publicity  by  going  to  the  other  side  of  the  lake, 
embarking  perhaps  at  the  western  shore  and  steering  north- 
east; but  His  design  was  detected  and  the  good-natured,  excited 
people  prevented  Him  from  realizing  it. 

4.  In  discussing  the  Raising  of  Lazarus,  it  was  said  that  no 
evidence  was  available  to  show  that  the  popularity  of  Jesus 
had  begun  to  wane ;  but  the  accounts  of  the  "  Feeding  of  the  five 
thousand  "  afforded  proof  that  the  climax  of  popular  enthusiasm 
was  marked  by  this  incident.  The  people  had  not  yet  caught  the 
spirit  of  their  rulers  toward  Jesus ;  their  belief  in  His  Messiahship 
had  become  a  swollen  torrent;  the  utterance  of  their  proffered 
loyalty  was  as  the  sound  of  many  waters ;  but  Jesus  refused 
to  be  what  they  wanted — a  political  demagogue :  henceforward 
the  waves  of  enthusiasm  subsided,  and  except  for  one  occasion 
of  passing  excitement,  the  feelings  he  had  stirred  moved  sound- 


The  Feeding  of  the  Multitude  235 

less  and  slow  as  through  a  darkening  wood.  We  have  four  ac- 
counts of  the  great  meal  in  the  desert,  and  this  is  proof  of  the 
deep  impression  made  by  the  incident;  but  an  honest  attempt 
to  find  out  what  occurred  and  "  diminish  into  clearness "  the 
discrepant  narratives  brings  us  to  a  Marcan  tradition  and  a 
later  Johannine  account.  These  two  narratives  are  distinct  and 
independent;  there  is  no  reason  for  doubting  that  St.  Mark  re- 
ports St.  Peter's  sermon  based  on  the  occurrence,  combining  with 
the  report,  inferences  and  modifications  due  to  interpretation ;  St. 
John,  on  the  other  hand,  was  an  eye-witness,  and  it  may  be  that 
he  wrote  to  correct  certain  misapprehensions  of  the  familiar  inci- 
dent, although  it  remains  equally  credible  that  his  gospel  was 
"  worked  over  "  by  some  Christian  scribe  who,  while  imbued  with 
the  teaching  of  the  Alexandrian  school,  cherished  a  high  estimate 
of  the  Marcan  tradition  of  Christ's  Ministry.  But  that  the 
Fourth  Gospel  gives  no  mere  transcription  of  the  Synoptist's 
narrative  becomes  apparent  to  the  reader  through  the  graphic 
and  vivid  portraiture  of  the  whole  scene,  and  also  in  the  delicate 
touches  belonging  to  the  veracity  of  an  eye-witness — rarely  imi- 
table  by  the  artist.  That  the  incident  should  be  so  distinctly  recol- 
lected after  the  lapse  of  many  crowded  years  was  due  to  the 
crucial  importance  felt  to  belong  to  it :  since  it  marked  both  the 
culmination  and  breakdown  of  the  popular  enthusiasm  for  Jesus, 
it  could  not  be  lightly  forgotten.  Modern  observers  of  the  com- 
plex movements  of  present-day  Judaism  may  gain  some  insight 
into  the  excitement  Jesus  had  aroused  by  His  Message  of  the 
Reign  of  God  from  the  controversies  raging  around  the  Zionist 
propaganda  begun  by  the  late  Dr.  Herzl. 

5.  Familiar  acquaintance  with  the  average  churchman  leads 
one  to  suppose  that  there  are  many  naive  believers  who  cling  to 
the  dogma  of  the  inerrancy  of  all  the  books  included  in  this 
sacred  Canon  of  Scripture.  It  is  probably  inevitable  that  such 
men  shall  view  with  alarm  and  suspicion  the  attempts  to  sift 
the  Gospels  and  to  distinguish  between  the  original  fact  and 
later  accretions  and  traditional  modifications.  But  while  we 
deprecate  such  misunderstanding,  we  must  accept  the  task  of  our 
age  to  dig  down  to  the  real  foundations  of  the  truth.  Should  there 
be  a  temporary  displacement  of  a  stone  here  and  there  by  an 
errant  criticism,  subsequent  toilers  will  rectify  such  mistakes : 
meanwhile,  it  is  well  to  remember  that  the  Four  Gospels  are  not 


236  The  Rejected  King 

the  foundation  of  the  Church,  but  Christ  Himself.  In  this  work 
of  investigation,  a  margin  must  be  allowed  for  involuntary  bias 
and  the  influence  of  the  mind's  preconceptions.  Those  who 
cherish  a  naturalistic  philosophy  will  be  predisposed  to  judge  the 
narrative  as  unhistorical,  although  some  even  among  these  will  be 
sufficiently  impressed  by  the  fourfold  narrative  as  to  admit  that 
some  actual  occurrence  must  lie  behind  the  Gospel  legend.  For 
ourselves,  there  is  no  reason  for  departing  from  our  method 
of  impressionist  study,  reading  the  narratives  as  we  would  other 
ancient  literature,  tracing  amid  the  discrepancies  the  firm  lines  of 
an  original,  apostolic  tradition  so  far  as  we  are  able,  and  keep- 
ing in  view,  as  our  guiding  light,  the  total  impression  Jesus  has 
made  upon  our  minds.  Still,  it  is  incumbent  upon  us  to  analyze 
the  four  accounts,  remembering  that  a  comparison  of  the  several 
gospels  has  shown  us  before,  that  the  traditions  concerning 
Jesus  could  not  escape  the  modifications  which  proceed  along  with 
oral  transmission;  also  the  ineradicable  tendency  of  the  mind  to 
over-emphasize  and  exaggerate  the  striking  aspects  of  human 
experiences.  Personally,  we  feel  no  antipathy  to  miracles;  the 
august  and  unique  character  of  Jesus  makes  credible  the  primi- 
tive belief  that  He  performed  acts  remarkable  for  their  power 
and  beneficence.  On  the  other  hand,  while  giving  full  credence 
to  this  transcendence  in  the  person  and  conduct  of  Jesus,  it  is 
impossible  to  shake  oflF  the  heritage  of  a  scientific  era  to  practise 
economy  in  regard  to  miracle,  and  to  believe  that  even  in  His 
works  of  exceptional  power  Jesus  observed  the  rule  of  laws  and 
forces  which  belong  to  higher  Nature  as  yet  undiscovered  by  us. 
In  regard  to  the  "  Feeding  of  the  five  thousand,"  the  ordinary 
Christian  belief  that  Jesus  achieved  a  stupendous  miracle  may  be 
the  correct  view ;  it  is  the  view  created  by  an  acceptance  of  the 
story  as  it  is  told  in  each  of  the  gospels;  and,  for  many  devout 
readers,  it  is  the  only  possible  interpretation.  So  long  as  this 
belief  remains  sincere  and  unforced,  no  one  would  persuade  others 
to  discard  it;  but  it  should  be  recognized  that,  in  the  experience 
of  not  a  few  Christian  thinkers,  it  has  come  to  pass  that  only 
by  a  coercion  of  the  reason  could  this  conception  of  the  miracle 
be  retained.  Throughout  a  long  period  of  analysis  and  comparison 
of  the  narratives  of  this  meal  in  the  desert,  many  considered  that 
there  was  no  alternative  other  than  to  accept  the  miracle  as  it  is 
related,  or  to  reject  the  account  as  unhistorical.  Slowly  and 
surely,  however,  as  they  have  traced  the  marks  of  modification 


The  Feeding  of  the  Multitude  237 

of  original  traditions  in  our  Gospels,  their  judgement  has  been 
led  to  the  verdict  that  in  the  original  apostolic  tradition,  as  it 
was  preached  by  Peter  and  John,  there  was  no  affirmation  that 
Jesus  performed  a  miracle  of  creation.  This  abandonment  of  the 
natural  impression,  that  a  great  miracle  occurred,  is  not  based 
upon  a  priori  grounds  of  impossibility;  for  such  is  the  writer's 
idea  of  Jesus  that  imagination  is  not  staggered  by  the  notion  that, 
to  meet  a  grave  emergency,  His  power  might  be  exercised  to 
create  baked  loaves  and  cooked  fishes ;  but  renewed  and  repeated 
study  of  St.  John's  account  of  the  feeding  of  the  people  has  led 
me  to  think  that  this  apostle,  whose  primary  motive  in  writing 
was  to  convince  men  that  Jesus  was  the  Son  of  God,  did  not 
intend  to  convey  the  idea  that  Jesus  performed  a  great  miracle  of 
creation.  Were  it  not  for  the  statement  that  the  twelve  baskets 
of  broken  pieces  were  "  from  the  five  barley  loaves,"  St.  John's 
account  might  be  read  without  inferring  the  transaction  of  a 
miracle  by  Jesus.  The  suspicion  of  a  redactor's  touch  in  this 
phrase,  who  designed  to  assimilate  St.  John's  account  with  the 
Church's  current  acceptation  of  a  miracle,  is  confirmed  when, 
as  we  read  the  discussion  which  follows,  we  observe  the  com- 
plete exclusion  of  any  sign  that  bore  resemblance  to  the  Hebrew 
manna  tradition  that  "  He  gave  them  bread  out  of  heaven  to 
eat."  Further,  the  notice  that  the  Passover  was  near  prohibits 
the  supposition  that  thousands  of  pilgrims  would  be  journeying 
without  ample  provision  of  food :  though  the  apostles  might  have 
come  all  unprovided  for  a  sojourn  in  a  desert  place,  the  crowds 
would  scarcely  be  so  empty-handed  as  to  necessitate  a  miracle. 

6.  The  chief  features  of  the  Marcan  narrative  are  as  fol- 
low: In  order  to  secure  the  privacy  and  rest  needed  by  Jesus 
and  His  disciples  at  the  termination  of  their  mission  they  sailed 
across  the  lake  to  a  rendezvous  on  the  eastern  side.  This  attempt 
to  escape  the  crowds  was  frustrated,  for  the  people  followed  them 
along  the  shore,  so  that  a  multitude  met  them  as  they  disem- 
barked. The  Master's  pity  was  excited,  for  they  seemed  as  sheep 
having  no  shepherd ;  and  He  taught  them  many  things ;  so  long  as 
He  discoursed,  the  people  showed  no  inclination  to  break  away. 
The  disciples,  however,  were  more  concerned  for  temporal  things, 
and  suggested  to  Jesus  that  the  crowds  should  be  sent  away,  that 
they  might  buy  food  in  the  neighbouring  hamlets  and  villages. 
The  Master,  instead  of  dismissing  the  people,  made  the  disciples 


238  The  Rejected  King 

bring  out  their  scanty  provisions  (five  loaves  and  two  small  fishes), 
and,  having  blessed  these,  He  gave  them  to  the  disciples  to  dis- 
tribute to  the  great  multitude  who  now  sat  in  orderly  companies 
on  the  grass.  A  miracle  is  clearly  implied,  and  the  result  was  that 
all  were  completely  satisfied.  In  the  Johannine  account,  the  cir- 
cumstances related  by  the  Synoptists  as  leading  up  to  this  incident 
are  omitted ;  the  Evangelist  introduces  his  story  with  characteristic 
abruptness  and  indifilerence  to  chronology.  The  multitudes  are 
said  to  have  followed  Jesus  because  of  the  "  signs  "  He  did,  even 
climbing  the  mountain  where  He  sat  with  His  disciples.  It  was 
the  Passover  time,  and  many  of  the  Jews  who  were  going  up  to 
Jerusalem  interrupted  their  journey  by  listening  awhile  to  the 
new  Rabbi.  According  to  St.  John,  it  was  Jesus  Himself  who 
first  referred  to  the  hunger  of  the  people.  To  appreciate  the 
story  fully,  it  must  be  remembered  that  Jesus  stood  on  a  higher 
spiritual  plane  of  thought  than  any  of  the  disciples.  They  were 
thinking  of  a  crown  and  of  an  army,  and,  as  though  Jesus  would 
fain  have  them  perceive  the  impossibility  of  realizing  their  ma- 
terialistic dreams,  He  suggests  ironically  the  greatness  of  the 
commissariat  necessary  to  maintain  an  army,  asking  of  Philip, 
"  Whence  are  we  to  buy  bread  that  these  may  eat  ?  "  Andrew, 
however,  once  the  disciple  of  John  the  Baptist — recalling  perhaps 
the  miracle  attributed  to  Elisha,^  when  with  twenty  loaves  of 
barley  and  fresh  ears  of  corn  in  his  sack,  he  fed  a  hundred  men — 
mentions  that  a  lad  was  there  with  five  barley  loaves  and  two 
fishes.  Being  ever  prone  to  act  symbolically  as  He  was  to  speak 
in  parables,  "  Jesus  knew  what  He  would  do."  All  the  day  He 
had  sought  to  nourish  the  crowd  with  His  Spiritual  Bread;  and 
now  He  would  bind  them  as  with  a  sacrament,  by  giving  them  the 
few  loaves  with  which  His  disciples  were  furnished :  besides,  it 
would  be  to  the  Twelve  a  lesson  in  magnanimity  and  faith,  and 
would  help  them  in  future  days  to  trust  in  the  good-nature  and 
justice  of  their  listeners.  There  was  no  need  of  a  miracle;  for, 
as  soon  as  the  scanty  store  of  Jesus  had  been  distributed,  so  that 
all  should  eat  of  His  bread,  the  multitudes  would  fall  back  upon 
their  own  Passover  provisions,  and  would  at  least  catch  enough 
of  the  Master's  charity  as  to  share  with  those  who  might  be  un- 
provided for.  St.  John  rightly  terms  this  a  "  sign  " ;  and  though 
we  invoke  no  appeal  to  miracle,  it  was  a  "  sign  "  replete  with 
beauty  and  ethical  meaning.  When  the  late  Professor  Godet 
*  II  Kings  iv.  42-44. 


The  Feeding  of  the  Multitude  239 

asks  "  how  so  simple  a  fact  should  have  produced  in  the  multitude 
such  a  state  of  exaltation  that  that  very  night  they  sought  to  get 
possession  of  Jesus  to  proclaim  Him  King,"  he  fails  to  appreciate 
the  previous  growth  of  popular  enthusiasm  which  was  now  ready 
to  seek  to  express  itself  at  any  moment. 

7.  It  is  not  difficult  to  conceive  how  an  incident  of  such  a 
character,  and  marking  by  its  happening  a  climax  and  crisis  in 
Christ's  Ministry  among  the  people,  should  have  been  subtly 
transfigured  by  the  alchemy  of  primitive  Aberglaiibe  into  a  stu- 
pendous miracle.  The  men  who  believed  in  the  Resurrection  of 
Jesus  had  come  to  see  in  Jesus  a  Person  charged  with  Divine 
power  and  glory;  and  they  were  prone  to  translate  the  remark- 
able, natural  phenomena  of  His  Ministry  into  miraculous  displays 
of  His  veiled  divinity.  Another  tendency  operative  in  the  early 
Church  upon  the  original  evangelic  deposit  of  eye-witnesses  was 
that  of  reading  into  the  Ministry  of  Jesus  the  fulfilment  of  the 
oracles  of  the  Old  Testament — not  only  of  viewing  Him  as  the 
realization  of  all  previous  types,  but  also  of  seeking,  in  the 
subsequent  tradition  of  His  work,  parallels  to  all  the  chief  events 
of  the  Old  Covenant.  Just  as  the  deliverance  of  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  corresponds  to  the  giving  of  the  Law  at  the  institu- 
tion of  the  Jewish  nation,  so  many  would  treat  a  story  of  the 
feeding  of  the  multitudes  as  the  counterpart  of  the  maintenance 
of  Israel  with  manna  in  the  wilderness.  Such  a  method  of  treat- 
ing a  narrative  of  miracle  cannot  be  confined  to  this  one  incident; 
it  will  be  applied  to  many  others,  and  in  the  process  the  facts  of 
Christ's  Ministry  are  in  danger  of  being  dissolved  into  a  mist  of 
uncertainty.  While  we  admit  the  perilous  possibility  and  lament 
that  we  are  not  living  in  happier  ages  of  naive  belief,  we  dare 
not  refuse  to  take  up  the  task  laid  upon  us  by  the  Ruler  of  His- 
tory; we  have  to  face  historical  problems,  to  dig  down  through 
all  dogmatic  accretions,  until  we  touch  the  true  foundation  which 
is  Christ  the  Lord.  If  we  be  accused  of  "  rationalizing  "  a  Gospel 
miracle,  our  justification  must  be  found  in  St.  John,  whose 
record  of  the  subsequent  challenge  flung  down  by  the  Jews  ^ 
leaves  no  room  for  any  miracle  of  creating  bread.  This  being 
so  we  dare  not  conceal  our  "  finding."  The  search  for  truth  must 
always  be  perilous;  yet  since  truth  itself  is  more  precious  than 
rubies,  we  cannot  be  deterred  by  apprehensions  of  mistake :  an 
arduous  quest  may  be  more  profitable  than  any  easy  attainment. 

*John  vi.  3of. 


240  The  Rejected  King 

8.  The  real  point  and  value  of  this  incident  in  the  progress  of 
Jesus  lie,  however,  not  in  the  question  whether  He  performed 
a  miracle,  but  in  the  momentous  issues  which  hung  upon  His 
treatment  of  the  enthusiasm  He  aroused  in  the  five  thousand 
men.  The  record  of  St.  John  supplements  the  Marcan  nar- 
rative, and  in  spite  of  all  discrepancies  they  produce  together  the 
verisimilitude  of  reliable  history.  In  contrast  with  the  usual  im- 
pression, the  details  and  characters  of  the  incident  are  drawn  with 
sharper  outline  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  than  in  the  Synoptics. 
As  a  rule,  St.  John  represents  the  "  signs  "  of  Jesus  to  have 
failed  in  carrying  conviction  to  the  people,  while  St.  Mark  shows 
how  by  His  works  Jesus  stirred  a  great  popular  enthusiasm ;  but, 
in  the  sequel  of  the  feeding  of  the  five  thousand,  the  fourth 
evangelist  is  much  more  explicit  and  illuminating.  In  the  Marcan 
story,  the  conduct  of  Jesus  is  clearly  set  forth,  but  the  motive 
of  it  is  unrecorded :  writing  long  after,  St.  John  supplies  us  with 
an  explanation.  The  earlier  evangelist  states  that  when  all  were 
satisfied,  "  immediately  He  compelled  the  disciples  to  embark 
and  cross  over  before  Him  to  the  opposite  side  to  Bethsaida,  until 
He  dismissed  the  crowd;  and,  after  taking  leave  of  them,  He 
went  up  into  the  mountain  to  pray."  But  this  abrupt,  imperious 
behaviour  is  fully  accounted  for,  as  we  read  in  St.  John,  of  the 
dangerous  excitement  of  the  multitude,  who  were  exclaiming  that 
*'  this  is  really  the  prophet  who  is  to  come  into  the  world,"  and 
were  goading  one  another  on  to  seize  Jesus  and  force  Him  to  be 
their  King.  The  Galileans  were  an  alert,  proud,  patriotic  people, 
and  zealous  haters  of  Rome;  they  were  destined,  in  the  final 
struggle  for  independence,  to  sacrifice  a  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand youths,  who  died  willingly  in  fighting  for  liberty.  Jesus  read 
the  spirit  of  these  men,  and  refused  to  lend  Himself  to  the  for- 
warding of  their  political  designs ;  when  He  saw  the  disciples 
inclining  to  support  the  scheme  of  crowning  Him,  He  sharply 
commanded  them  to  embark  and  withdraw  to  some  other  place. 
Since  our  main  interest  is  to  trace  the  historic  development  of  the 
earthly  Ministry  of  the  Rabbi  of  Nazareth,  so  that  we  may  under- 
stand how  He  came  to  be  believed  in  as  a  Divine  Person,  we 
must  allow  no  controversy  about  the  miraculous  meal  in  the 
desert  to  divert  attention  from  the  momentous  crisis  that  marked 
this  mid-point  of  His  public  work.  So  great  was  the  political 
agitation  in  which  Jesus  was  momentarily  entangled,  that,  had 
He  not  acted  with  instant  decision,  the  leaders  of  the  movement 


The  Feeding  of  the  Multitude  241 

in  collusion  with  the  disciples  would  have  forcibly  seized 
(apTcd^siv)  His  Person  and  have  compelled  Him  to  head  their 
march  to  Jerusalem.  Sternly  resolute,  Jesus  ordered  the  Twelve 
away,  and  turning  His  back  upon  the  incipient  revolutionists  He 
went  up  into  the  mountain  to  pray.  He  refused  to  be  either  the 
demagogue  or  the  tool  of  political  intrigue  and  rebellion; — not 
that  He  had  a  doubt  about  His  fitness  to  be  King,  but  because  He 
held  His  higher  Kingship  as  something  infinitely  above  the  popu- 
lar conception.  The  people  longed  for  the  advent  of  David's  Son ; 
they  wanted  a  national  hero,  cherishing  a  patriotic  ideal  of  free- 
dom from  foreign  domination.  The  swell  of  ancient  prophecies 
reverberated  in  their  imaginations,  and  they  forgot  the  ideal  of 
the  Sufifering  Servant  of  Jehovah.  Jesus  Himself  designed  the 
foundation  of  a  Spiritual  Kingdom ;  the  people,  although  missing 
the  meaning  of  His  highest  message,  were  attracted  by  His  mani- 
fest power.  They  interpreted  His  claims  upon  the  allegiance 
of  His  followers  by  their  own  political  preconceptions ;  and,  while 
puzzled  by  His  frequent  thwarting  of  their  expectations,  they 
were  for  the  time  convinced  that  He  was  "  the  Coming  One  " 
spoken  of  in  Scripture.  At  times  they  wondered  at  His  vacilla- 
tion, for  they  desired  Him  to  strike  a  blow  for  national  liberty; 
His  spiritual  teaching  mystified  them;  but  one  of  the  results  of 
the  Mission  of  the  Twelve  may  have  been  to  spread  a  belief  that  a 
change  was  imminent;  the  very  watchword  of  the  missionaries 
concerning  the  Kingdom  was  felt  to  be  the  signal  of  the  begin- 
ning of  insurrection.  Among  many  of  the  disciples  who  staked 
everything  upon  this  attempt  to  force  the  hand  of  Jesus  may  have 
been  Judas  Iscariot,  and  his  fanatical  disappointment  at  the  im- 
practicability of  the  Master  may  have  led  to  the  moral  deteriora- 
tion which  ended  in  treachery.  But,  having  withdrawn  from 
the  excited  crowds,  Jesus  spent  the  night  in  lonely  vigil  and 
spiritual  communion,  feeling  as  He  meditated  there  on  the  moun- 
tain, that  the  time  had  come  to  disillusion  the  people  of  their  false 
Messianistn  once  and  forever,  even  though  the  issue  might  be 
the  renunciation  of  Himself  as  one  who  seemed  a  futile  dreamer. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  MYSTICISM  OF  JESUS  AND  THE  DISILLUSION- 
MENT OF  THE  PEOPLE 

I.  The  political  designs  of  the  multitude  were  swiftly  balked 
by  Jesus  in  the  dismissal  of  the  Twelve,  and  His  own  retirement 
to  the  solitude  of  the  Mountain.  The  gross  distortion  of  His 
mission,  not  only  by  the  excited  crowds,  but  even  by  His  own 
intimate  disciples,  must  have  produced  a  double  accentuation  of 
that  feeling  of  isolation  which  Jesus  experienced  so  often  in  the 
very  midst  of  the  swarming  crowds.  He  was  a  lonely,  uncom- 
prehended  Man,  removed  far  from  the  superstitions  and  idols  of 
an  unspiritual  people  by  His  abiding  insights  into  the  heart  of 
Nature,  of  Man  and  of  God.  His  escapes  into  solitude  were 
probably  the  only  occasions  when  He  was  able  to  rid  His  soul 
of  the  sting  and  smart  of  loneliness.  Saddened,  indeed,  must 
Jesus  have  been,  as  He  reflected  that  night  upon  the  nearness  of 
the  danger  that  Caiaphas  had  predicted — that  His  movement 
vi^ould  assume  a  political  character,  and  entangle  Him  in  the  fine 
meshes  of  Roman  law  We  shall  miss  something  of  His  greatness, 
unless  we  take  account  of  the  forces  of  that  wild  and  fanatical 
maelstrom  of  Jewish  patriotism  which,  had  He  wavered  for  a 
single  moment,  would  have  swallowed  up  His  little  society  in  a 
tumult  of  revolution  and  bloodshed.  It  is  difficult  for  us  to  con- 
ceive of  the  fitness  of  Jesus  to  assume  the  leadership  of  military 
adventure;  but,  to  contemporary  Jews,  it  apparently  seemed  a 
feasible  project.  Cromwell  and  Gordon  demonstrate  that  men 
of  a  deeply  religious  nature  may  be  successful  soldiers;  that  the 
mystical  temper  may  be  allied  to  habits  of  intense  practicalness. 
A  fair  recognition  of  all  the  facts  of  the  Ministry  of  Jesus  pre- 
vents any  attempt  at  cataloguing  Him  among  dreamers  or  en- 
thusiasts, at  labelling  Him  as  of  sanguine  or  melancholy  tempera- 
ment. Attention  to  one  set  of  facts  may  leave  the  impression  that 
Jesus  was  a  meditative,  poetic  religious  genius;  but  then  arises 
another  set  of  phenomena  into  view  which  compels  us  to  acknowl- 
edge His  vigorous,  far-seeing  and  sagacious  mind;  besides  that, 

242 


The  Mysticism  of  Jesus  243 

St.  Mark  represents  Him  as  a  spiritual  athlete,  putting  forth  all 
His  strength  to  accomplish  a  definitely  planned  mission  for  estab- 
lishing God's  Reign  on  earth.  The  completeness  of  His  humanity 
tends  to  conceal,  from  the  unprepared  mind,  the  greatness  of 
Jesus  as  Man;  the  consequence  of  this  has  been  a  fragmentary 
vision  of  Him,  so  that  in  successive  ages  different  aspects  of  His 
life  have  been  emphasized  almost  to  the  exclusion  of  other  phases 
equally  real.  Hence,  every  mind  fashions  its  own  Christ,  but  no 
one  has  yet  seen  Him  as  He  is:  still,  our  idea  of  Jesus  is  our 
greatest  knowledge;  it  is  just  so  much  of  the  Mind  of  the  Master 
dwelling  in  our  minds.  Nevertheless,  having  corrected  the  im- 
patience of  our  partial  vision,  we  may  venture  to  give  special  at- 
tention to  the  mysticism  of  this  Rabbi ;  for  Jesus  was  the  spiritual 
kinsman  of  those  seers  of  all  ages  and  climes  who  have  felt  the 
touch  of  the  Spirit  as  the  most  momentous  fact  of  their  experi- 
ences. Such  souls  have  ever  been  like  flowers  exhaling  a  deli- 
cate and  beautiful  perfume  and  imparting  a  distinct  "  feel  "  to  the 
atmosphere  around.  In  the  varied  life  of  our  great  Master,  we 
trace  recurrent  alternations  of  activity  and  quiescence — of  ener- 
getic ministry  and  of  quiet  prayer,  which  were  as  the  diastole 
and  systole  of  the  heart's  action;  for  even  Jesus  would  have 
been  unable  to  maintain  His  beneficent  expenditure  of  life- 
force,  had  He  not  received  periodic  replenishment  of  Spiritual 
life. 

2.  "  It  was  already  dark,  and  Jesus  had  not  yet  come  to  them." 
In  these  words  the  Evangelist  implies  that  the  disciples  awaited 
Him  at  a  certain  rendezvous ;  but,  finding  that  He  did  not  arrive, 
they  resumed  their  interrupted  journey  across  the  lake.  The 
rowers,  however,  made  but  little  progress,  their  eflForts  all  being 
frustrated  by  a  storm  of  wind,  which  swept  down  upon  the  water. 
The  relative  positions  of  the  struggling  disciples  and  their  Lord, 
keeping  vigil  on  the  Mount,  are  symbolic  of  the  Church  in  every 
age.  Suddenly  the  baffled  disciples  were  affrighted,  thinking  they 
saw  a  ghost.  The  phrase  (fVz  rf/?  BaXaffcr^?y  leads  naturally 
to  the  suggestion  that  Jesus  appeared  "by  the  sea";  for  this 
preposition  is  used  with  the  genitive  sometimes  to  express  vicinity, 
hence  "  at  the  sea  "  might  be  equivalent  to  saying  "  on  the  shore." 
The  disciples,  not  realizing  their  nearness  to  land,  and  not  ex- 
pecting Jesus  to  overtake  them  now,  fancied,  as  they  saw  His 

^  John  vi.  19. 


244  The  Rejected  King 

form  dimly  moving  in  the  uncertain  light,  that  it  was  an  appari- 
tion on  the  water,  and  were  superstitiously  alarmed.  A  very 
slight  modification  of  the  oral  tradition  of  this  story  would  give 
a  miraculous  turn  to  the  narrative ;  but,  however  the  incident 
may  be  interpreted,  it  leaves  unmodified  the  Church's  faith  in 
Christ.  One  who  believes  in  the  historical  reality  of  His  sinless 
life  finds  no  difficulty  in  believing  also  that  Jesus  might  transcend 
the  ordinary  law  of  gravitation,  if  it  were  necessary  for  the 
realization  of  some  high  purpose,  but  if  it  seem  unnecessary  to 
invoke  a  miracle  the  mind  seeks  for  a  natural  explanation.  Per- 
ceiving the  alarm  of  His  disciples,  Jesus  called  out  to  them  not  to 
be  afraid.  St.  Matthew  relates  that  Peter  at  once  recovered  from 
his  superstitious  fears,  and  besought  Jesus  to  permit  him  to  walk 
on  the  sea  to  meet  Him.  While  this  is  manifestly  congruous  with 
the  known  character  of  that  disciple,  there  are  many  who  regard 
the  incident  as  a  mythical  adjunct  illustrating  the  fluctuating 
moods  of  a  typical  man  among  the  first  followers  of  Jesus. 
Readers  will  decide  the  point  according  to  their  several  judge- 
ments ;  but,  whether  looked  upon  as  literally  true  or  as  symbolical, 
the  treatment  of  this  incident  does  not  affect  one's  conception 
of  Jesus.  A  psychological  touch  is  given  by  the  fourth  evangelist, 
who  says,  "  Then  they  were  ready  to  take  Him  into  the  boat,  and 
immediately  the  boat  was  at  the  land  for  which  they  were  mak- 
ing." St.  Mark,  who  treats  the  entire  scene  as  supernatural, 
relates  that  at  that  instant  the  wind  dropped,  "  and  they  were  sore 
amazed  in  themselves;  for  they  understood  not  concerning  the 
loaves,  but  their  heart  was  hardened."  This  last  statement  affords 
an  incidental  guarantee  of  this  Evangelist's  good  faith ;  although 
the  apostles  had  come  to  be  regarded  as  the  pillars  of  the  Church 
by  the  time  he  was  writing  this  gospel,  still  he  never  attempted 
the  least  concealment  or  extenuation  of  their  natural  faults  and 
failings  in  the  period  of  their  probation.  It  is  easily  credible 
that  a  reminiscence  of  Simon's  own  confession  of  mental  obtuse- 
ness  and  spiritual  hardness  lurks  in  this  Marcan  recital  of  the 
story. 

3.  The  next  dynamic  moment  in  the  sequel  to  the  feeding  of 
the  multitude  was  the  discourse  in  the  synagogue,  on  the  mystic 
Bread,  related  alone  by  St.  John.  Were  we  to  judge  the  value 
of  the  Fourth  Gospel  by  this  contribution  alone,  aiding  us  as  it 
does  to  understand  the  new  turn  of  events  in  the  Ministry  of 


The  Mysticism  of  Jesus  245 

Jesus,  we  should  ascribe  to  it  the  highest  historical  insight  into 
the  psychology  of  the  facts  related  by  the  Synoptists, — that  hence- 
forth the  popularity  of  Jesus  perceptibly  waned.  On  the  morn- 
ing following  the  strange  feast  on  the  hill,  the  people  were  aston- 
ished that  Jesus  could  not  be  seen,  since,  on  the  previous  evening, 
they  had  seen  the  disciples  embark  in  the  only  boat  off  the  north- 
eastern shore,  and  leave  their  Rabbi  behind.  During  the  night, 
however,  the  furious  storm  had  driven  in  some  boats  from 
Tiberias,  and  many  of  the  people  took  advantage  of  these  to  cross 
back  to  the  other  side.  Coming  to  Capernaum,  they  were  sur- 
prised to  learn  that  Jesus  had  arrived  before  them  and  was  in 
the  synagogue.  At  once  they  went  to  Him  with  the  many-voiced 
inquiry,  "  Rabbi,  when  camest  thou  hither  ?  "  For  the  under- 
standing of  what  followed  it  must  be  recognized  that  the  mood 
of  Jesus  had  changed  since  the  previous  day.  He  had  seen 
His  whole  mission  imperilled  by  the  persistent  misconception  of 
His  Messianic  role,  and  had  come  to  the  determination  to  make 
it  impossible  that  anyone  should  henceforth  imagine  that  He 
cherished  any  design  of  securing  temporal  power.  During  His 
midnight  vigil,  great  clearness  had  come  to  Him  as  to  the  irrecon- 
cilable antagonism  between  the  popular  Messianism  and  His  own 
spiritual  ideal,  and  He  perceived  that  He  could  not  transform  the 
thoughts  of  His  age  beyond  His  immediate  circle  of  disciples. 
The  clarified  vision  revealed  to  Him  the  arrival  of  the  crucial 
hour  of  His  Ministry,  and  unhesitatingly  He  resolved  to  strip 
away  from  men's  minds  all  illusions  about  Himself.  In  any  other 
life,  we  should  characterize  the  taking  of  such  decision  as  the 
preeminent  expression  of  moral  courage.  About  Jesus,  however, 
we  hesitate  to  use  such  language,  lest  we  should  even  remotely 
seem  guilty  of  the  absurdity  of  patronizing  by  our  eulogies  One 
who  rises  so  much  above  our  ordinary  standards  of  conduct. 
Hitherto  the  populace  had  responded  to  the  spell  of  His  dominat- 
ing personality ;  but  the  people  could  not  appreciate  the  highest 
phases  of  His  work,  and  all  too  evidently  they  had  misinterpreted 
the  mission  of  the  disciples.  Now  the  moment  had  come  tor  a 
clear,  bold,  unmistakable  definition  of  His  purely  spiritual  aim  in 
the  world.  The  great  prophetic  ideal  of  Messianic  kingship  was 
now  to  be  freed  from  the  swaddling-bands  of  national  pride  and 
prejudice,  and  Jesus  was  to  show  that  the  true  King  belongs  to 
the  whole  race,  and  that  He  must  nourish  the  world  by  the  sacri- 
fice of  Himself.    His  auditors  were  of  various  parties ;  some  were 


246  The  Rejected  King 

Galilean  zealots,  ready  to  follow  the  lead  of  anyone  who  would 
set  up  the  standard  of  the  Davidic  dynasty;  some  were  hostile 
Jews,  carrying  out  their  scheme  of  espionage,  and  insinuating  their 
contempt  by  scornful  epithets  flung  at  "  this  fellow  ";  some  were 
wavering  adherents  who  had  been  impressed  by  the  work  of  Jesus 
and  did  not  know  what  to  think;  and  a  few  were  His  own  most 
intimate  disciples. 

4.  Once  again  the  peculiar  difficulty  in  using  the  Johannine 
writings  for  historical  ends  confronts  us :  the  sayings  of  Jesus 
are  mingled  with  the  reflections  of  the  Evangelist;  while  in  the 
Synoptics  the  logia  shine  with  a  clear-cut  light,  here  the  profound 
thoughts  of  Jesus  are  fused  and  sometimes  blurred  in  the  shim- 
mering radiance  of  John's  theosophy.  Still,  with  a  little  attention 
we  discern  the  real  sayings  of  Jesus  like  points  of  starry  light 
in  the  Milky  Way.  The  recorded  dialogue  in  this  sixth  chapter 
may  be  steeped  in  the  hues  of  the  writer's  characteristic  style; 
and  yet  it  not  only  retains  the  traces  of  historic  verisimilitude, 
but  it  also  gives  us  clues  which  make  the  first  Galilean  apostasy 
historically  explicable.  In  the  Capernaum  synagogue  that  day, 
Jesus  deliberately  employed  such  metaphors  as  could  not  fail  to 
be  misunderstood  and  lead  to  irritation ;  He  provoked  a  con- 
troversy that  was  bound  to  issue  in  grumbling  and  strife,  and 
even  in  renunciation  of  Himself  as  an  impracticable  dreamer. 
He  takes  the  feeding  of  the  multitude,  and  treats  it  as  a  parable 
in  action,  setting  forth  symbolically  the  real  spiritual  relation  that 
He  sustains  to  the  world.  We  touch  here  a  characteristic  mode 
of  thought  used  by  Jesus;  to  Him  the  visible  realm  and  rela- 
tionships are  revelations  of  the  invisible  realities.  Behind  the 
Maya  of  phenomena  there  is  a  trustworthy  Reality  of  eternal 
goodness;  and  the  material  aspects  of  life  are  as  shadows  flung 
by  the  soul.  Jesus  claimed  to  bring  a  Divine  provision  for 
mankind's  spiritual  hunger.  The  legend  of  the  manna,  which 
played  so  important  a  part  in  the  national  store  of  metaphor 
should  have  supplied  His  hearers  with  a  key  to  His  mysticism. 
The  metaphors  of  eating  and  drinking  the  truth  were  familiar 
to  Jewish  readers :  hence  one  wonders  at  their  total  inability  to 
understand  Jesus.  Wisdom  invites  her  children,  "  Come,  eat  ye 
my  bread  and  drink  of  the  wine  which  I  have  mingled."  ^  "  They 
that  eat  me  shall  yet  be  hungry,  and  they  that  drink  me  shall 

^  Prov.  ix.  5. 


The  Mysticism  of  Jesus  247 

yet  be  thirsty."  ^  "  Thou  gavest  Thy  people  angels'  food  to  eat 
and  bread  ready  for  their  use  didst  Thou  provide  from  Heaven 
without  their  toil.  .  .  .  For  Thy  nature  manifested  Thy  sweet- 
ness toward  Thy  children."  ^  Jesus  applied  these  figures  to 
Himself,  calling  Himself  the  Bread  of  Life — man's  food  from 
Heaven.  Passing  from  metaphor  to  symbol,  Jesus  at  last  set 
forth  His  flesh  and  blood  as  the  soul's  meat,  betraying  darkly,  for 
the  first  time  in  public.  His  divination  of  the  necessity  of  giving 
His  personal  life  to  satisfy  the  world's  need.  Such  symbolism 
cannot  be  interpreted  with  prosaic  literalness ;  it  must  speak  many 
meanings  to  the  minds  of  men ;  coordination  with  similar  sayings 
may  help  the  understanding;  for  example,  Ezekiel  was  told  to 
eat  the  roll  of  prophecy,  and  one  of  the  psalmists  wrote,  "  How 
sweet  are  thy  words  unto  my  taste,  yea  sweeter  than  honey  unto 
my  mouth."  One  of  the  Rabbinic  sayings  concerning  the  Mes- 
sianic hope  was,  "  In  the  coming  age  they  neither  eat  nor  drink, 
but  the  just  sit  with  crowns  on  their  heads  and  are  nourished 
with  the  brightness  of  Divine  Majesty."  Yet  another  was, 
"  Such  as  was  the  first  Saviour,  so  will  be  the  last ;  as  the  first 
Saviour  caused  manna  to  fall  for  Israel,  so  the  last  Saviour 
will  also  cause  manna  to  descend  for  them  once  more,  for 
it  is  written,  '  There  shall  be  abundance  of  corn  in  the 
land.' " 

5.  Jesus  Himself  laid  down  the  first  principle  of  sound  herme- 
neutics :  "  It  is  the  Spirit  that  giveth  life ;  the  flesh  profiteth  noth- 
ing; the  sayings  which  I  have  spoken  to  you  are  spirit  and  life." 
He  deprecated  that  unimaginative  literalism  which  fails  to  pass 
behind  the  metaphors  to  the  spiritual  realities  of  His  teaching. 
Men  do  not  live  by  bread  alone;  they  hunger  for  truth,  justice 
and  love.  Our  life  is  not  nourished  by  material  acquisitions;  it 
feeds  on  the  more  subtle  aliments  of  hope,  faith,  beauty,  thought 
and  righteousness.  The  living  Bread  from  Heaven  must  com- 
prise all  these  separate  aliments ;  and  if  Jesus  be  that  Bread,  then 
are  these  given  in  Him.  Often  His  disciples  have  regarded 
His  teaching  as  being  the  Bread  He  gave,  but  a  profounder 
insight  apprehends  that  the  greatest  gift  of  Jesus  to  our  world 
has  been  His  own  Personal  Life.  His  sayings  were  indeed  as 
fountains  of  living  water,  and  yet  words  be  they  never  so  noble, 

1  Ecclesiasticus  xxiv.  19-21. 

*  Wisdom  xvi.  20.     Cf .  St.  Paul's  m/ev/ianKdv  fSpofia  :  irvcv/iariKbu  rrSfia. 


248  The  Rejected  King 

and  even  deeds  though  they  be  sublime,  are  but  symbols  of  the 
soul  from  which  they  emanate.  We  all  crave  after  the  ultimate 
Reality,  and  this  cannot  be  less  than  personal :  our  own  souls  are 
fed  by  the  love,  the  thoughts,  the  very  ego  disclosed  in  recipro- 
cated relationships.  The  Truth  for  which  the  intellect  craves 
is  no  abstraction,  no  creed  however  logical,  but  the  actuality  of 
the  Divine  Life :  we  long  for  God — for  the  living  God.  The 
Righteousness  after  which  the  heart  hungers  is  no  empty  "  cate- 
gorical imperative,"  but  the  harmony  of  Divine  and  human  wills. 
The  flesh  and  blood  which  Jesus  offered  were  the  symbols  of  His 
Ego  or  Life;  these  can  be  assimilated  by  meditation,  obedience 
and  responsive  love :  the  metaphors  of  eating  and  drinking  must 
be  translated  into  the  spiritual  functions  of  thought  and  will. 
Jesus  addressed  His  thoughts  to  the  future  as  much  as  to  His 
actual  audience;  through  the  language  of  profound  mysticism 
He  spoke  to  all  generations,  but  His  immediate  aim  was  to  show 
forth  the  essentially  spiritual  character  of  His  mission,  and  so 
make  impossible  the  recrudescence  of  all  false  dreams  about  His 
Messiahship.  Once  again  we  trace  the  astounding  egoism  of  this 
meek  and  lowly  Man ;  He  calls  Himself  the  Son  of  Man,  and  He 
is  most  truly  human;  in  His  veins  is  the  red,  warm  tide  of 
creature-Hfe :  yet  all  the  while  the  title  is  perceptibly  laden  with 
the  aroma  of  prophecy;  it  is  pregnant  with  Messianic  implica- 
tions. He  claims  to  speak  as  the  "  sealed  of  God  " ;  and  He  is 
sealed  not  by  a  water  baptism  only,  but  also  by  a  Heavenly 
chrism, — sealed  by  the  demonstration  of  Divine  approval  and  en- 
dowment of  power.  Four  times  He  reiterates  His  unique  affirma- 
tion to  have  come  down  from  Heaven,  thus  mystically  articulating 
His  abiding  original  possession  of  the  consciousness  of  God.  His 
life,  He  says,  with  all  its  various  expressions  of  thought  and  ac- 
tion, with  its  subsequent  sacrifice  and  anticipated  resurrection, 
is  the  living  Bread  given  to  nourish  the  inner  spiritual  conscious- 
ness of  mankind.  Jesus  asserts,  in  this  discourse,  that  He  is  the 
Mediator  of  eternal  life;  also  the  true  Object  of  contemplation 
and  faith,  and  the  Divinely  given  sustenance  of  the  soul.  To 
eat  this  Bread  from  Heaven  is  no  physical  act  of  participation  in 
the  Communion-Sacrament ;  it  is  to  believe  on  Jesus,  to  experience 
the  drawing  of  His  Spirit,  to  assimilate  His  habit  of  thought  and 
temper ;  and  only  those  who  thus  believe,  and  are  inwardly  taught 
of  God,  may  be  spoken  of  as  feeding  on  the  Bread  of  God.  And 
of  them  it  is  said,  they  are  secured  against  the  dissolving  power 


The  Mysticism  of  Jesus  249 

of  death,  for  they  are  heirs  of  the  thrice-repeated  promise  of  the 
resurrection.^ 

6.  In  some  measure  every  sincere  teacher  gives  not  only 
thoughts,  but  also  his  soul  to  his  pupils,  and  preeminently  in  the 
case  of  Jesus  every  word  He  uttered  contained  the  communica- 
tion of  His  Life.  His  words  were  essentially  the  overflow  of  His 
sincere  thought,  and  however  fragmentary  our  records  of  His 
speech.  His  sayings  breathe  the  totality  of  His  Spirit;  whatever 
criticism  the  Gospels  may  yet  undergo  the  logia  of  Jesus  are  as 
genuine  coins  struck  from  His  inmost  experience,  stamped  with 
the  image  and  superscription  of  His  unique  consciousness.  While 
in  other  realms  of  teaching  the  demand  upon  the  personality  of 
the  teacher  will  be  with  proportionate  diminution  as  the  methods 
and  matter  are  more  formal  and  mechanical,  it  is  an  inviolable 
law  of  the  Spirit  that  he  who  would  teach  and  help  others  in 
things  pertaining  to  the  soul  must  give  himself  as  a  sacrificial 
meal  for  others.  Jesus  complied  with  this  law  so  completely  that 
the  world  has  fed  upon  Him  ever  since ;  His  own  veritable  say- 
ings and  their  echoes  in  other  minds.  His  personal  example  and 
sacrifice  have  been  found  to  be  the  real  Bread  from  Heaven, 
and  sources  of  perennial  inspiration  to  the  nobler  spirit  of  man. 
We  have  been  nourished  by  that  great  mind  and  heart  of  His 
in  all  high  thinking  and  generous  enthusiasms;  and  through  the 
Ideal  mediated  by  Him,  mankind  has  been  saved  from  dismal 
abysses  of  materialism  and  from  the  despotism  of  chaos  and  night. 

But  if  the  words  of  Jesus  had  been  doctrines  of  ethics  and 
metaphysics,  they  might  have  passed  without  demur  by  His 
listeners,  who  would  not  have  stumbled  at  His  theories  had  they 
not  first  been  offended  by  His  personal  claims.  His  audience 
passed  speedily  from  a  mood  of  surprise  and  of  inquiry  to  one  of 
murmuring  and  hostility.  As  men  listened,  they  supposed  that 
Jesus  Himself  claimed  to  come  from  Heaven,  and,  deeming  that 
the  facts  about  His  birth  were  simply  human  and  unmarked  by 
aught  unusual,  they  judged  it  impossible  that  He  could  have  de- 
scended into  this  human  state  from  a  place  of  Heavenly  trans- 
cendence. 

7.  It  is  beyond  dispute  that,  in  His  teaching  of  the  mystic 
Bread,  are  implications  of  a  personality  which  cannot  be  exhausted 

*Wendt  and  Reuss  treat  this  idea  of  resurrection  as  secondary  and 
due  to  the  redactor. 


250  The  Rejected  King 

by  the  titles  of  rabbi,  sage  or  prophet.  There  is  no  escape  from 
the  tremendous  dilemma  thrust  upon  us  by  the  claims  implicit  in 
this  Johannine  record,  whether  they  were  made  by  Himself  or 
invented  by  others  :  "  Assuming  that  the  stupendous  claim  ascribed 
to  Him  is  false,  one  would  think  it  must  have  disordered  His  life 
with  insanity  if  He  made  it  Himself,  and  the  accounts  of  His 
life  if  others  invented  it."  ^  Behind  the  claim  to  be  the  Bread  of 
Life  which  cometh  down  from  Heaven,  lies  the  whole  mystery  of 
Christ's  consciousness,  and  no  final  explanation  of  that  conscious- 
ness has  yet  been  given.  The  words  of  Jesus  would  have  passed 
as  fleeting  breath  and  found  no  resonant  echoes  after  His  death, 
had  there  not  been  a  life  of  such  a  character  that  through  it  men 
became  sure  of  God.  The  words  of  Jesus  breathed  forth  the 
supreme  ideal  of  Humanity,  but  it  was  the  Life  which  Jesus 
lived  which  made  His  logia  immortal ;  and  that  Life  was  the 
manifestation  of  such  a  Personality  as  God  Himself  dare  not, 
cannot,  obliterate.  Whatever  processes  of  idealization  and  in- 
tellectual transformation  have  gone  on  in  the  transmission  of  the 
Jesus-ideal  through  the  centuries,  He  makes  men  conscious  still 
of  the  Father- Spirit  of  the  universe.  When,  however,  we  go 
back  to  the  apostolic  records  and  seek  to  find  their  interpretation 
of  the  Consciousness  of  Jesus,  the  centuries  seem  to  slip  away; 
for,  whatever  changes  have  taken  place  in  our  philosophic  modes 
of  thought  and  terminology,  the  idea  of  Jesus  is  for  the  most  part 
identical  with  the  experience  of  men  today.  Jesus  made  the 
apostles  sure  of  God ;  He  gave  to  them  the  idea  and  understanding 
of  the  Father's  Presence.  "  The  Word  became  flesh  and  taber- 
nacled among  us,  and  we  beheld  His  glory — glory  as  of  the 
only-begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth."  To  really 
eat  the  Bread  of  Life  from  Heaven  does  not  equate  itself  with 
an  intellectual  acceptance  of  the  apostolic  formula  of  the  In- 
carnation ;  it  means,  rather,  that  we  should  pass  through  a  like 
spiritual  experience,  and  receive  into  our  own  inmost  life  the 
consciousness  of  Jesus.  Such  was  the  influence  of  Jesus  and  the 
consequence  of  His  Ministry  in  the  lives  of  the  apostles,  that  they 
were  driven  as  by  inspiration  to  conceive  of  Him  as  One  who 
had  lived  in  a  state  of  Preexistent  glory,  but,  out  of  love  for 
humanity,  had  laid  aside  His  beatific  divinity  and  become  one  of 
us  by  being  born  as  a  little  child.  To  some  minds  this  apostolic 
theory,  comes  as  an  adequate  and  as  an  authoritative  interpre- 
'  Gwatkin,  The  Knowledge  of  God,  vol.  i.,  p.  120. 


The  Mysticism  of  Jesus  251 

tation ;  but  there  are  others  to  whom  it  is  a  burden  of  mystery ; 
they  admit  that  it  may  be  true,  but  they  have  no  assurance.  Now, 
supposing  it  is  true  is  it  of  supreme  importance  that  we  shall  ac- 
knowledge this  Incarnation-formula?  Does  Jesus  really  mind? 
No,  the  matter  of  preeminent  moment  in  the  mind  of  Jesus 
was  that  men  should  participate  in  His  own  consciousness  of  God 
and  of  Humanity,  that  they  should  eat  of  the  Bread  which  cometh 
down  from  Heaven.  Whatever  weight  may  be  given  to  the  in- 
tellectualization  of  Christianity  by  St.  Paul,  that  apostle  was 
nourished  on  that  mystic  Bread,  and  was  able  to  say,  "  I  live,  yet 
not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me."  To  eat  of  that  Bread — to  feed  on 
that  consciousness  of  Jesus,  implies  at  least  that  we  shall  know 
God  by  intuition  as  "  our  Father,"  that  we  shall  love  men  as 
Jesus  did,  that  we  shall  think  His  ideals,  cherish  His  aims,  will  to 
do  His  will.  While  participating  in  this  experience  it  may  be 
that  many  honest  minds  will  oscillate  in  perplexity  and  inde- 
cision concerning  the  relative  and  external  views  of  Jesus  Christ ; 
but  they  will  know  the  real  and  inner  life  of  Jesus  and  be  His 
intimate  disciples.  Thus  once  again  was  verified  the  statement 
made  by  Jesus  that  He  sought  to  make  His  earthly  Ministry 
an  imitation  of  what  His  Heavenly  Father  did;  as  in  the  tradi- 
tion God  gave  manna,  and  in  fact  ever  gives  the  true  Bread 
from  Heaven,  so  the  Son  gives  Himself — that  is.  His  con- 
sciousness and  very  life,  to  men  as  the  Bread  of  the  Spirit.  The 
revealing  Reason,  the  Logos,  or  life-imparting  Spirit,  is  for  ever 
coming  down  from  above,  stealing  in  upon  us  like  the  light,  and 
flooding  our  souls  with  nobler  impulses.  The  mystery  of  the  life 
of  Jesus  we  have  not  fathomed,  but  we  perceive  that  He  summed 
up  the  Divine  Ideal  of  manhood,  and  drew  the  sea  of  life  in  which 
our  personalities  are  merged  into  His  own  experience  as  the  Son 
of  Man;  and  through  Him  we  are  fed  by  a  larger  eternal  life 
which  goes  far  out  beyond  our  finite  individualization, — by  a 
great  Social  Spirit  which  integrates  all  the  units  into  one  vast 
organism  of  redeemed  humanity. 

8.  Believing  that  this  discourse  embodies  not  only  the  reflec- 
tions of  the  Evangelist,  but  also  the  actual  memories  he  retained 
of  the  thoughts  of  Jesus,  it  will  not  surprise  one  to  find  in  it  a 
veiled  allusion  to  His  future  sacrifice.  If  Caiaphas  had  already 
defined  the  policy  of  the  Sanhedrim  towards  Jesus  as  we  suppose, 
then  it  is  natural  that  fore-glimpses  of  the  final  tragedy  should 


252  The  Rejected  King 

begin  to  appear  in  the  speech  of  Jesus.  "  The  Bread  which  I 
will  give  is  my  flesh  for  the  life  of  the  world."  Since  Jesus 
subsequently  gave  His  body  to  be  crucified,  it  is  inevitable  that 
these  words  should  be  interpreted  as  Christ's  anticipation  of  the 
Cross  by  which  His  glory,  grace  and  truth  were  to  be  diffused 
throughout  the  world.  In  the  light  of  that  final  tragedy  this 
record  reads  like  a  passion-discourse,  and  it  becomes  connected 
with  the  supper  He  shared  with  His  disciples  at  the  end.  Con- 
sciously, or  unconsciously,  Jesus  adopted  the  old  Semitic  idea  of 
eating  the  sacrifice  and  sharing  the  life  of  the  tribal  god,  the 
Bread  sent  down  from  Heaven  in  Himself  could  only  be  given 
to  the  whole  world  by  His  voluntary  sacrifice.  He  gave  them  this 
Bread  by  giving  Himself.  Those  who  would  enter  the  Reign  of 
God  had  to  forego  all  thoughts  of  a  holy  war  against  the  Roman 
oppressor,  the  obligation  was  laid  upon  them  to  assimilate  the 
mind  of  Jesus, — to  absorb  His  ideas,  learn  His  affections,  feel 
His  enthusiasm  for  humanity, — to  appropriate  Him,  as  it  were 
to  eat  His  flesh,  so  that  His  human  ideal  may  live  in  them 
again. 

9.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  this  mystic  discourse,  tinctured 
already  with  the  blood-red  hues  of  His  anticipated  Passion,  was 
the  means  deliberately  adopted  by  Jesus  to  disillusion  the  people 
of  their  false  notions  of  His  Messiahship  and  to  sift  out  the  grain 
from  the  chaff  in  His  movement.  Many  of  His  auditors  had 
pursued  Him  from  the  east  side  of  the  lake,  bent  upon  forcing 
Him  to  be  their  King.  Such  men  listened  in  utter  bewilder- 
ment; the  rarefied  atmosphere  of  the  Spirit  He  breathed  ex- 
hausted them  and  left  them  nerveless  and  inactive :  even  the 
disciples  of  the  inner  and  outer  circle  were  pained  and  stricken 
with  despondency  as  Jesus  cast  a  blight  upon  all  their  earth-born 
hopes  and  ambitions ;  while  the  spies  and  enemies  who  belonged 
to  the  ruling  classes  felt  their  hatred  intensified,  and  knew  not 
whether  to  rejoice  or  lament  that  Jesus  had  dashed  to  the  ground 
the  popular  enthusiasm  He  had  kindled.  Under  the  influence  of 
His  lofty  idealism  the  prevalent  Messianism  with  its  concrete  no- 
tions of  a  national  restoration  was  dissipated  as  a  wreath  of 
smoke.  Jesus  had  forced  upon  His  disciples  the  dilemma  of 
choosing  between  two  exclusive  ideals, — the  low  one  of  national 
ambition  which  He  could  never  stoop  to  realize,  or  the  spiritual 
one  of  Jehovah's   Suffering   Servant.     The   people   had   asked 


The  Mysticism  of  Jesus  253 

for  a  strong  hand  and  a  sharp  sword ;  but  Jesus  seemed  to  them 
to  be  offering  only  the  words  of  an  idle  dream.  At  last  the 
turning  point  was  reached  in  the  movement  which  had  gathered 
around  Jesus;  now  the  common  people  who  had  hitherto  be- 
lieved in  Him  went  over  to  the  side  of  the  authorized  religious 
leaders  of  the  nation :  Jesus  had  become  a  stone  of  stumbling  and 
a  rock  of  offence.  "  Many  drew  back  and  walked  no  longer  with 
Him."  The  bitter  disappointment  infected  the  spirits  of  the 
Twelve  and  it  seems  not  improbable  that  at  this  crisis  dis- 
loyalty first  touched  the  zealous  Messianist  named  Judas.  Seeing 
the  cloud  on  the  face  of  Iscariot,  Jesus  felt  the  poignant  pathos  of 
a  lonely  and  discredited  Leader;  for  a  while  it  seemed  as  if  His 
most  intimate  disciples  might  be  caught  in  the  popular  revulsion 
of  feeling;  seeing  them  divided  He  said  to  the  Twelve,  "  You  will 
not  leave  me  too?"  To  their  abiding  honour  they  showed  that 
love  and  loyalty  can  live  through  the  storm  of  personal  disap- 
pointment and  popular  ill-will.  Although  they  could  not  fore- 
see all  that  might  be  involved  in  their  decision  to  stand  by  Jesus, 
they  could  not  fail  to  feel  the  sting  of  scorn  as  their  enemies  threw 
their  jibes  at  the  Master,  This,  together  with  their  own  sense  of 
keenest  disappointment,  imparted  a  touch  of  heroism  to  their 
choice.  The  greater  number  of  the  Twelve  voluntarily  chose 
obloquy  with  Jesus  as  more  greatly  to  be  preferred  than  all  the 
world's  honour  without  their  Lord.  It  is  only  too  evident  from 
the  record  of  later  incidents  that  these  disciples  had  not  entered 
into  the  grandeur  of  Christ's  ideals,  to  them  His  teaching  was 
vague  and  for  the  present  inapprehensible ;  yet  in  answer  to  the 
question  Jesus  had  asked,  Simon  Peter  said,  "  Lord,  to  whom  can 
we  go?  Thou  hast  words  of  eternal  life.  And  for  our  part  we 
have  believed  and  know  that  Thou  art  the  Holy  One  of  God." 
Whether  St.  John  anticipates  in  this  answer  the  confession  made 
by  Peter  at  Cassarea  Philippi,  and  has  foreshortened  the  time  of 
suspense  between  this  Capernaum  crisis  and  the  epoch  which 
stands  out  in  the  Synoptics,  cannot  be  lightly  determined.  It 
may  be  that  the  fourth  evangelist  takes  the  liberty  of  inserting,  at 
this  crucial  point  in  his  narrative,  a  confession  of  Peter  during  the 
flight  which  followed  as  a  consequence  upon  the  Galilean  apostasy. 
But  while  the  causal  nexus  between  the  two  incidents  might 
justify  a  slight  foreshortening  of  perspective  in  the  narrative,  it  is 
still  within  the  range  of  credibility  that  Simon  might  repeat  His 
confession  a  second  time,  that  Jesus  Himself  might  deliberately 


254  The  Rejected  King 

elicit  a  repetition  of  this  avowal  of  faith  for  the  benefit  of  all  the 
Twelve.  This,  however,  is  a  question  of  secondary  moment,  the 
great  outstanding  and  determinative  fact  is  that  in  this  first 
hour  of  trial,  when  the  popular  attitude  swung  round  from  one 
of  favour  to  one  of  antagonism,  the  Twelve  maintained  their 
outward  loyalty  to  Jesus  although  they  could  not  as  yet  under- 
stand Him. 


CHAPTER  III 

DESPISED  AND  REJECTED  OF  MEN 

I.  As  the  fourth  evangelist  summarises  in  the  concluding 
verses  of  his  sixth  chapter  a  process  of  vacillation,  suspense  and 
division,  which  probably  extended  over  a  period  of  several  weeks, 
we  may  use  the  Synoptics  to  supply  the  actual  incidents  and  de- 
tails which  lay  behind  St.  John's  general  statement.  By  thus 
making  our  respective  narratives  supplement  each  other's  deficien- 
cies there  will  be  acquired  a  clear  conception  of  the  emergence 
of  a  stubborn  unbelief,  malignant  questionings  and  resolute  hos- 
tility to  Jesus,  which  issued  at  length  in  the  national  rejection 
of  Him  as  a  mere  Pretender.  The  crisis  described  in  our  last 
chapter  took  place  at  Capernaum,  His  adopted  city.  Early  in 
His  Ministry  Jesus  had  chosen  this  town  as  the  chief  centre  of 
His  Galilean  evangelism,  and  it  is  evident  that  its  populace  had 
at  first  been  favourably  impressed  by  Him ;  but  as  we  have  seen, 
when  Jesus  deliberately  refused  the  political  leadership  which  the 
people  desired  to  thrust  upon  Him,  and  made  it  unmistakable 
that  the  Messiahship  He  claimed  was  an  unqualified  Spiritualism, 
the  disappointed  people  abandoned  Him  as  an  ineffectual 
Dreamer.  Notwithstanding  this  revolution  of  popular  opinion 
about  Him,  instead  of  withdrawing  at  once  and  altogether 
from  Galilee,  Jesus  seized  the  following  days,  while  men  were 
pausing  before  taking  the  next  step  of  avowed  animosity,  for 
an  extended  tour  through  many  of  the  places  where  the  Twelve 
had  publicly  announced  that  He  would  come.  Jesus  knew  that 
ere  long  other  towns  would  follow  the  example  of  Capernaum, 
but  meanwhile  a  last  opportunity  was  afforded  for  a  further 
appeal  to  those  who  were  still  oscillating  between  belief  and 
unbelief.  With  swift  decisiveness,  and  before  any  prevenient 
notice  of  obstruction  could  be  carried  to  the  towns  and  villages 
around,  Jesus  renewed  His  itineration.  According  to  St.  Mark, 
this  tour  was  made  forever  memorable  by  His  miracles;  the 

255 


256  The  Rejected  King 

people  brought  out  all  their  sick  to  Jesus,  and  even  they  who 
could  but  touch  the  fringe  of  His  cloak  were  healed.^ 

2.  It  was  probably  at  this  time  that  Jesus  made  His  last  visit 
to  Nazareth  (7  ndrpii  avrov),  although  by  St.  Mark  the  ac- 
count is  placed  before  the  Mission  of  the  Twelve,  while  St.  Luke's 
beautiful  narrative  of  what  occurred  forms  a  kind  of  frontispiece 
of  the  Ministry  of  Jesus.  Those  who  accept  the  Lucan  placing 
of  this  incident  as  chronological  will  find,  in  this  compulsory 
departure  from  Nazareth,  a  partial  explanation  why  Jesus  after- 
wards made  Capernaum  His  chief  centre.  But,  in  our  concep- 
tion of  the  trend  of  events  in  the  life  of  Jesus,  the  visit  to 
Nazareth  fits  in  most  naturally  with  the  itineration  that  followed 
the  Capernaum  schism.  While  the  oracle  read  by  Him  announces 
an  ideal  programme  of  the  Messiah's  mission,  the  rejection  of 
Him  by  the  irritated  Nazarenes  is  typical  of  what  now  happened 
throughout  Galilee  and  Judaea.  The  longing  to  revisit  the  scenes 
of  His  youth  and  the  home  of  His  childhood  swept  over  His 
soul  when  He  was  repudiated  at  Capernaum,  just  as  the  longing 
for  a  draught  of  the  water  of  the  well  of  Bethlehem  overwhelmed 
the  heart  of  David  in  the  hour  of  adversity.  Such  a  sentiment 
is  characteristic  of  the  naturalness  of  Jesus,  and  is  easily  under- 
stood. While  the  third  evangelist  places  the  incident  at  the 
threshold  of  the  ministry,  yet  by  his  mention  of  the  mighty  works 
done  in  Capernaum,  which  had  aroused  the  jealousy  of  the 
people  at  Nazareth,  he  makes  it  well-nigh  impossible  to  accept 
this  very  early  occurrence  of  the  rejection  of  Jesus;  but  then, 
on  the  other  hand,  why  did  Jesus  leave  His  own  village  so  long 
unvisited?  We  can  only  infer  that,  from  the  attitude  of  His 
own  family,  who  had  soon  regarded  Him  as  the  victim  of  frenzy, 
Jesus  had  rightly  gauged  the  native  hostility  of  neighbours  and 
home-friends  to  any  recognition  of  His  spiritual  authority.  But 
He  could  not  go  away  from  Galilee  without  once  visiting  the 
place  "  where  He  had  been  brought  up  " ;  ^  therefore.  He  came  to 
it  now  with  mingling  hopes  and  fears.  It  is  evident  that  ex- 
communication from  the  synagogues  in  Jerusalem  did  not  prevent 
His  joining  in  public  worship  in  the  provinces,  although  it  had 
long  ago  been  made  impracticable  to  continue  His  synagogue 
ministry  in  any  systematic  manner:  hence,  He  came,  as  was  His 

'  Mark  vi.  53-56. 

*  Mark  vi.  1-6;  Matt.  xiii.  53-58;  Luke  iv.  16-30. 


Despised  and  Rejected  of  Men  257 

wont,  to  the  meeting-house  at  Nazareth.  There  was  manifest 
excitement  because  of  His  presence ;  for,  while  it  was  known 
that  He  had  assumed  the  status  of  a  rabbi,  and  by  His  teaching 
and  remarkable  powers  of  healing  had  won  universal  fame,  it 
was  also  equally  well  known  that  He  had  become  a  companion 
of  "  sinners,"  and  had  again  and  again  violated  the  laws  of  the 
Sabbath.  Besides,  not  long  before,  members  of  His  disciple- 
band  had  probably  delivered  in  this  village  their  Lord's  message 
of  the  Kingdom :  so  curiosity  to  see  Him  would  blend  with  irrita- 
tion at  His  renown,  and  many  in  the  synagogue  would  recall 
memories  of  their  acquaintance  with  Him  when  He  was  with 
them  as  a  carpenter,  while  they  would  cherish  disapproval  of 
what,  in  their  conservatism,  they  would  deem  His  arrogance 
and  domination. 

3.  The  chazzan  handed  to  Jesus  the  roll  of  the  prophet  Isaiah, 
and  all  listened  as  He  read  from  the  Hebrew  text  and  then 
translated  into  Aramaic ;  it  would  be  noticed,  too,  how  He  broke 
oif  the  reading  at  a  clause  reverberant  with  the  joy  of  jubilee, 
and  omitted  the  line  which  spoke  of  the  "  day  of  vengeance." 

"  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me, 
Therefore  He  has  anointed  me  to  preach  glad  tidings  to  the  poor, 
He  has  sent  me  to  proclaim  release  to  the  captives  and  recovery  of 

sight  to  the  blind, 
(To  set  the  oppressed  at  liberty), 
To  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord."  ^ 

Having  rolled  up  the  scripture  and  handed  it  back  again,  Jesus 
began  to  give  His  interpretation  of  the  prophecy,  and  a  strained 
hush  of  expectancy  fell  upon  all_the  listeners  as  they  watched 
Him  with  eager  intentness  {rjGav  arsviZovrEi).  "This 
day,"  said  Jesus,  "  is  the  Scripture  fulfilled  in  your  ears !  "  His 
voice  was  calm,  grave  and  singularly  winsome,  and  must  have 
set  the  chords  of  many  hearts  vibrating  with  involuntary  re- 
sponse. Here  at  Nazareth,  in  the  home  of  His  childhood,  and 
the  scene  of  His  years  of  toil,  He  made  the  claim  to  fulfil  all 
the  essential  meaning  of  the  Messianic  oracle  He  had  read;  and 
here,  as  well  as  in  Capernaum,  this  self-disclosure  becomes  the 
touchstone  of  character.  The  first  impressions  in  His  favour 
made  by  His  persuasive  and  gracious  utterance  gave  place  to 
viilgar  prejudices  against  the  Carpenter ;  He  was  too  well  known 

*Isa.  Ixi.  1-2. 


258  The  Rejected  King 

to  them,  and  His  brothers  and  sisters  were  humble  folks,  still 
living  in  the  village :  perhaps  they  were  in  the  synagogue,  and  it 
seemed  preposterous  that  Jesus  should  possess  such  authority. 
They  were  scornful  at  His  daring  application  of  a  sublime  proph- 
ecy to  Himself,  and  were  alienated  from  Him  by  stupid  feelings 
of  jealousy  and  anger.  One  thing  only  would  satisfy  them; 
they  had  heard  of  His  miracles:  let  Him,  therefore,  convince 
them  by  some  startling  display  of  power.  And  how  could  He 
do  them  any  good  morally,  when  the  very  leaders  of  the  national 
religion  had  rejected  His  claims?  And  so  they  thought.  Physi- 
cian, heal  thyself!  But  a  mere  intellectual  assent  resulting  from 
sensational  displays  would  be  morally  worthless,  and  Jesus  offered 
no  sign.  He  may  have  said,  as  Weiss  thinks  He  did,  at  this 
time :  "  No  man  can  come  to  Me,  except  the  Father  which  sent 
Me  draw  him :  and  I  will  raise  him  up  at  the  last  day."  ^  St. 
Mark  states  that  "  He  could  not  work  any  miracle  there  beyond 
laying  His  hands  upon  a  few  sick  people  and  healing  them." 
The  graphic  account  by  St.  Luke,  of  the  attempt  to  kill  Jesus, 
may  be  the  result  of  a  confusion  of  the  Nazareth  tradition  with 
a  story  of  the  violence  which  had  been  exhibited  in  Jerusalem.^ 
"  There  must  be  here,"  says  Weiss,  "  an  intermixture  of  Johan- 
nine  reminiscences  in  the  tradition  of  Luke."  Jesus  Himself 
marvelled  at  the  strong  expressions  of  unbelief  which  were  shown 
at  Nazareth.  He  felt  Himself  more  and  more  isolated,  and  He 
recalled  that  in  ancient  times  Elijah  and  Elisha  had  achieved  their 
greatest  triumphs  outside  Israel.  "  He  came  unto  His  own  and 
His  own  received  Him  not."  The  passion  of  His  life  was  to 
identify  Himself  with  the  people;  but  so  intensely  selfish,  so 
driven  by  gross  materialism  and  religious  bigotry  were  they, 
that  they  could  give  no  place  to  a  mind  which  moved  ever  on  a 
plane  of  equable  purity  and  universal  benevolence.  He  was  com- 
pelled to  Jread  the  path  of  life  alone  and  to  become  a  spiritual 
exile. 

4.  It  was  becoming  more  and  more  difficult  to  continue  the 
ministry  in  Galilee ;  for  the  waning  of  popular  affection  for  Jesus 
gave  opportunity  to  the  malignant  espionage  of  sleepless  and 
vindictive  enemies  from  Jerusalem.^  The  occasion  of  complaint 
came  through  the  disciples — these  quondam  fishermen  and  peas- 
ants, who,  feeling  little  the  importance  of  the  artificial  ceremonies 

*John  vi.  44-46.  *John  viii.  59.  'Matt.  xv.  1-20. 


Despised  and  Rejected  of  Men  259 

of  Pharisaism,  openly  disregarded  the  washing  of  their  hands 
with  the  fist  (  7tvyfxr(  )  before  meals.  This  trivial  ceremony  was 
the  mark  of  a  religious  caste,  and  as  such  was  accounted  by  the 
Pharisees  as  a  graver  matter  than  the  exercise  of  ordinary  kind- 
ness. Their  remonstrance,  however,  elicited  from  Jesus  a  scath- 
ing indictment  of  contemporary  Pharisaism  for  preferring  the 
traditions  Of  men  to  the  commandments  of  God.  The  religion 
of  Jesus,  personally  realized  and  authoritatively  taught  by  Him, 
was  inspired  by  filial  consciousness  toward  God,  and  issued  in 
virtue  and  benevolence  in  all  human  relationships.  Jesus  saw  the 
danger  lest  inquisitive  research  and  erudite  orthodoxy  should 
take  the  place  of  the  eternal  principles  of  religious  morality,  and 
laid  down  the  axiom  that,  if  the  principle  of  kindness  collided 
with  some  rule  of  religious  ritual,  the  latter  must  be  swept  aside 
as  the  brain-spun  cobwebs  of  religious  convention.  Jesus  dis- 
dained a  whispered  controversy  with  His  foes;  boldly  He  ap- 
pealed to  the  reason  and  conscience  of  the  common  people,  say- 
ing, "  Nothing  can  make  a  man  unclean  by  entering  him  from 
outside:  nay,  what  makes  a  man  unclean  is  that  which  issues 
from  him."  Impurity  is  a  defilement  of  the  soul,  not  a  matter 
simply  of  physical  pollution :  meats  and  unwashed  hands  matter 
little  when  considering  moral  values,  and  with  a  sweep  of  His 
hand  Jesus  cast  Pharisaic  formalism  into  the  limbo  of  worn-out 
superstitions.  His  speech  was  like  a  sharp  sword  cleaving 
asunder  the  futilities  of  artificial  thought  and  laying  bare  the 
realities  of  life,  and  the  enemies  of  Jesus  seemed  paralyzed  for 
the  time  as  by  some  lightning-stroke.  At  a  later  stage  of  the 
argument,  Jesus  said,  "  Every  plant  which  My  Father  has  not 
planted  shall  be  rooted  up.  Leave  them :  they  are  blind  guides. 
And  if  a  blind  man  lead  a  blind  man,  both  of  them  shall  fall 
into  a  ditch."  The  stern  deliberateness  of  this  castigation  of  the 
Pharisees  showed  that  Jesus  Himself  deemed  a  point  had  been 
reached  which  made  the  reconciliation  of  this  sect  impossible. 
Knowing  that  He  had  failed  to  win  Israel,  Jesus  felt  a  great  wave 
of  sorrow  and  breathed  out  a  lamentation — not  a  curse,  but  a  cry 
of  spiritual  disappointment — 

"  Woe  to  thee,  Chorazin  !    Woe  to  thee,  Bethsaida  ! 
For   had   the   powerful    deeds   performed   in   you   been   performed   in 

Tyre  and  Sidon, 
They  had  repented  long  ago  in  sackcloth  and  ashes. 
Yet  I  tell  you,  Tyre  and  Sidon  shall  find  it  more  tolerable  on  the  day 

of  judgement  than  you. 


260  The  Rejected  King 

And  thou,  Capernaum,  shalt  thou  be  exalted  as  far  as  heaven?  thou 

shalt  be  thrust  down  to  hades ! 
For   had   the   powerful   deeds   performed   in   thee   been   performed   in 

Sodom, 
It  would  have  lasted  until  this  day. 
Yet  I  tell  you,  the  land  of  Sodom  shall  find  it  more  tolerable  on  the 

day  of  judgement  than  thou!  " 

5.  "  He  was  despised  and  rejected  of  men ;  a  man  of  sorrows, 
and  acquainted  with  grief."  Greatness  must  often  be  misunder- 
stood, yet  frequently  one  of  the  hidden  notes  of  greatness  is  the 
very  longing  for  sympathy  which  intensifies  the  pain  of  being 
rejected.  The  agony  through  which  Jesus  passed  at  this  period 
has  never  yet  been  totally  conceived  by  any  man ;  it  may  well  be 
that  the  hour  of  His  final  tragedy  was  more  easily  borne  than 
the  season  of  suspense.  Although  aware  that  the  hour  had  not 
yet  come  for  His  complete  sacrifice,  He  perceived  that  it  would 
be  impossible  to  continue  His  work  in  Israel ;  one  plan  alone  was 
practicable — to  devote  Himself  henceforth  to  the  training  of  the 
Twelve.  "  Now  He  rose  and  went  away  "  beyond  Galilee  north- 
ward into  Gentile  regions.  His  subsequent  wanderings  may  have 
extended  over  many  weeks,  or  even  months ;  for  He  visited  the 
mercantile  cities  on  the  Syrophoenician  coast,  crossed  the  Damas- 
cus road  (we  have  no  disproof  of  His  having  entered  the  ancient 
city  He  had  come  so  near)  ;  next  passing  the  Lebanon  range, 
he  returned  southward  through  Decapolis  on  the  eastern  side 
of  the  Lake.  A  question  neither  unimportant  nor  uninteresting 
arises,  Whether  Jesus  made  one  or  two  prolonged  journeys 
northward  ?  St.  Mark  gives  account  of  two ;  but  this  is  sus- 
pected of  being  a  literary  reduplication  occasioned  by  the  mis- 
understanding of  a  confused  and  variant  tradition  of  the  incident 
of  feeding  the  multitudes.  This  theory  is  credible,  since  it  cannot 
be  denied  that  the  Evangelist  might  err;  and  yet  it  is  by  no 
means  impossible  that  Jesus  should  a  second  time  succour  a 
hungry  crowd  of  listeners.  We  admit  to  the  feeling  of  a  preju- 
dice against  a  recurrence  of  this  incident;  and  the  facility  with 
which  a  reduplicated  tradition  might  grow  up  is  apprehensible 
by  all  who  observe  the  modifications  that  take  place  in  oral  trans- 
missions. Against  this  instinctive  prejudice  we  must  place  the 
circumstantial  differences  in  the  two  accounts :  the  time  was 
different ;  the  place  also  was  not  identical,  since  once  they  were 
within  easy  reach  of  places  where  provisions  could  be  purchased, 
but  the  second  time  they  were  remote  from  all  towns.     In  the 


Despised  and  Rejected  of  Men  261 

first  narrative  the  people  are  said  to  have  been  with  Jesus  one 
day;  in  the  later  incident  they  are  represented  as  having  com- 
panied  with  Him  three  days ;  lastly,  it  is  not  beneath  notice  that 
each  narrative  has  its  own  word  for  the  basket  used  ( Hoeptvot: 
ffnvpii),  a  difference  which  might  arise  from  the  different 
shapes  of  basket  made  in  different  localities.  We  also  recollect 
that,  in  one  of  the  gentle  reproaches  Jesus  uttered  when  His 
disciples  misunderstood  Him,  He  recalled  to  their  memories  both 
incidents  of  feeding.  Taking  all  these  trifling  details  together, 
they  certainly  have  weight  for  judgement,  and  incline  us  to 
believe  that  St.  Mark  has  preserved  a  literal  and  true  account 
of  the  order  of  events  at  this  time;^  and,  if  so,  the  repeated  in- 
cident of  feeding  a  multitude  breaks  the  wanderings  of  Jesus,  so 
that  we  think  of  two  separate  journeys  into  Gentile  lands.  Two 
such  flights  give  an  air  of  reality  to  the  accusation  made  by 
Celsus :  ^  "In  company  with  your  disciples,  you  go  and  hide 
yourself  in  different  places  " ;  for  it  is  not  likely  that  outsiders 
would  divine  the  real  motives  of  Jesus. 

6.  The  juxtaposition  of  contrasting  incidents  in  our  Gospels, 
though  often  undesigned,  sometimes  lends  an  added  pathos  to 
the  record  of  Christ's  Ministry;  at  this  juncture,  for  example, 
the  affecting  appeal  of  the  Syrophcenician  woman  follows  the 
story  of  the  Galilean  rejection  of  Jesus.  Like  some  exile  from 
His  native  land,  Jesus  sought  privacy  and  rest  in  heathen  terri- 
tory: as  though  He  were  suffering  from  the  depressing  reaction 
of  recent  exciting  experiences,  "  He  went  into  a  house  and  wished 
no  one  to  know  He  was  there."  ^  His  fame,  however,  had  spread 
abroad,  even  among  the  Gentiles  of  the  north,  so  that  His  pres- 
ence could  not  be  kept  private ;  and  very  soon  a  woman  in  need 
found  Him  out,  and  besought  Him  to  heal  her  little  daughter, 
who  was  possessed  by  a  demon.  Jesus  at  first  ignored  the  peti- 
tioner, and  then,  when  her  importunity  forced  Him  to  speak.  His 
answer  seemed  like  a  cruel  repulse,  which  no  verbal  ingenuity 
can  explain;  and  yet,  when  we  conceive  the  dilemma  into  which 
Jesus  was  thrown,  His  words  lose  their  obscurity.  Sometimes 
it  is  forgotten  that  Jesus  found  a  part  of  the  problem  of  human 
life  to  consist  in  learning  what  the  Divine  Will  really  is ;  we  ought 
to  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  even  Jesus  gained  no  exemption 

*Mark  viii.  lo;  Matt.  xv.  32-30.       "  Origen  against  Celsus,  hk.  i.,  ch.  65. 

®Mark  vii.  24. 


262  The  Rejected  King 

from  the  task  of  choosing  between  alternative  possibilities.  At 
this  period  of  His  Ministry  it  is  feasible  that  the  Jewish  rejection 
of  His  claims  might  have  stirred  the  doubt  if  it  might  not  be 
best  to  appeal  directly  to  the  Gentiles.  Even  as  He  was  wrestling 
with  this  perplexity  the  Syrophoenician  woman  may  have  stood 
before  Him  as  the  representative  of  the  Greeks,  and,  like  the 
Macedonian  of  St.  Paul's  vision  at  Troas,  uttered  the  cry  of 
heathendom,  "  Come  over  and  help  us."  The  reiterated  plaint 
of  this  poor  woman  vexed  the  disciples,  and  they  urged  their 
Rabbi  to  send  her  away.  Jesus  told  her  the  thought  which  had 
been  working  in  His  mind  that  His  Ministry  was  to  Israel. 
Upon  hearing  this  she  fell  at  His  feet  with  entreaties ;  but  seeing 
this,  Jesus  quoted  a  Jewish  proverb,  as  though  He  were  pursuing 
a  mental  argument  quite  as  much  as  holding  dialogue  with  the 
woman,  "  It  is  not  meet  to  take  the  children's  bread  and  cast 
it  unto  the  dogs."  Repellent  as  the  saying  seems  to  us,  the 
Master's  tone  evidently  left  the  woman's  trust  in  His  goodness 
unquenched,  and  with  ready  wit  she  replied,  "  Yes,  Lord :  yet 
the  dogs  under  the  table  eat  of  the  children's  crumbs."  It  is  not 
surprising  that  the  woman's  faith  should  triumph  over  Jesus' 
seeming  reluctance,  and  as  a  consequence  He  sent  her  away 
with  a  promise  that  her  petition  should  be  granted. 

7.  Although  Jesus  received  the  spiritual  monition  that  His 
Father  gave  permission  and  power  to  heal  both  the  Syrophoenician 
girl  and  the  deaf-mute  in  Decapolis,  He  did  not  account  this  a 
Divine  commission  to  pursue  an  extended  ministry  among  the 
Gentiles.  As  the  first  sense  of  perplexity  which  sprang  from 
the  pain  and  disappointment  at  the  Galilean  rejection  passed 
away,  He  perceived  that  this  period  of  wandering  was  an  oppor- 
tunity long  desired  of  giving  special  attention  and  instruction  to 
the  Twelve.  At  the  same  time  a  tour  with  Jesus  through  heathen 
districts  could  not  but  serve  as  a  survey  of  missionary  ground, 
and  the  Master  sought  to  prepare  His  disciples  for  the  recognition 
that  the  Reign  of  God  was  for  the  Gentiles  as  well  as  for  the 
Jews.  Providentially  confined  to  the  House  of  Israel  though 
His  personal  ministry  was,  His  parables  and  general  teaching 
show  that  Jesus  anticipated  a  world-wide  extension  of  His  move- 
ment. The  disciples  may  have  dully  acquiesced  in  the  thought 
that  the  Gentiles  should  some  day  come  as  converts  to  Zion ;  but 
already   Jesus   had   planted   in   their  minds  the   germs   of  His 


Despised  and  Rejected  of  Men  263 

spiritual  and  universal  faith.  There  may  have  been  not  a  few 
contingencies  in  the  subsequent  history  of  Christianity  which  were 
wholly  unforeseen  by  Jesus;  but  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
He  deliberately  planned  the  establishment  of  a  Kingdom  as  broad 
as  Humanity;  and  though  He  saw  that  His  own  life  must  be 
terminated  with  all  the  tragic  accompaniments  of  crucifixion, 
His  faith  in  the  Father,  in  the  Divine  origin  of  His  movement, 
made  Him  certain  that  the  work  He  had  begun  could  not  end. 
He  was  no  Utopian  dreamer,  deluding  Himself  with  false  hopes ; 
He  clearly  anticipated  His  own  death,  and  foretold  times  of  perse- 
cution for  His  followers;  still.  He  was  sure  of  the  harvest,  and 
definitely  set  Himself  to  the  task  of  preparing  the  minds  and 
spirits  of  the  disciples  for  the  coming  spiritual  revolution.  Some 
things  He  uttered  were  probably  not  understood  at  the  time,  but 
He  knew  that  they  would  sleep  in  the  memories  of  His  hearers 
and  awake  with  power  in  days  to  come. 

8.  Presuming  that  St.  Mark's  version  is  correct,  we  must 
imagine  Jesus  to  have  followed  a  circuitous  route  and  got  back 
again  to  some  place  east  of  the  Lake.  Here  the  people  flocked 
to  hear  Him  once  more,  and  after  preaching  to  them  for  three 
days,  Jesus  met  the  emergency  of  hunger  by  repeating  the  gracious 
incident  of  the  feeding  of  the  multitudes.  After  this  He  entered 
into  the  boat  and  came  to  the  unidentified  region  of  Dalmanutha, 
or  Magadan.  Having  returned  to  Israel  once  more.  He  became 
the  subject  of  temptation ;  for,  hearing  of  His  arrival,  Pharisees 
and  Sadducees  came  to  put  Him  to  the  test.  Pfleiderer  has 
looked  upon  this  as  the  germ  of  the  temptation  story.  It  was  an 
ill  omen  that  sects,  mutually  embittered  against  each  other, 
should  sink  all  jealousies  and  ally  themselves  against  Jesus. 
They  wanted  a  sign  from  the  sky — some  portent  that  would 
quench  all  their  doubts;  probably  they  were  ignorant  that  such 
doubts  as  they  had  were  due  to  moral  rather  than  to  intellectual 
causes.  Jesus  sighed  heavily  in  spirit  at  this  renewed  symptom 
of  their  antagonism,  and  refused  all  other  signs  than  that  which 
Jonah  gave  to  ancient  Nineveh — the  prediction  of  judgement  and 
call  to  repentance.^  He  was  deeply  wounded  by  this  fresh  dis- 
play of  invincible  hostility,  and  abruptly  departed  from  the  place, 

* "  Matt.  xii.  40,  is  a  gloss  which  formed  no  part  of  the  original  say- 
ing, but  was  introduced  very  naturally,  though  erroneously,  by  the  author 
of  our  present  Gospel." — Sanday,  Bampton  Lectures,  1893,  p.  433. 


264.  The  Rejected  King 

hurrying  His  disciples  into  the  boat  to  go  to  Bethsaida — whether 
the  town  of  that  name  on  the  west,  or  one  on  the  northeast  of 
the  Lake  is  uncertain.  The  incident  is  surrounded  by  obscurity, 
although  it  may  be  inferred  from  what  followed  that  the  plausible 
address  of  the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees,  with  their  political  and 
external  ideas  of  Messianism,  had  made  but  too  much  impression 
upon  the  susceptible  disciples.  The  Master's  sudden  change  of 
plan  so  disturbed  them  that  they  forgot  to  purchase  bread.  St. 
Mark,  ever  alert  in  garnering  even  trifling  reminiscences  of  Jesus 
and  the  disciples,  records  the  fact  that  they  had  only  a  single  loaf 
with  them.  It  was  not  of  this,  however,  that  Jesus  spoke  when 
He  warned  them,  "  See  and  beware  of  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees 
and  the  leaven  of  Herod ! "  ^  He  was  preoccupied  with  the 
graver  implications  of  the  recent  discussion,  and  was  anxious  to 
tear  out  of  their  hearts  the  last  remains  of  the  Jewish  dream  of 
a  political  restoration.  They  could  not  understand,  however,  that 
He  was  oblivious  of  material  needs  for  the  time,  and  with  childish 
literalness  said,  "  It  is  because  we  have  no  bread ! "  Their 
spiritual  dulness  vexed  Him  for  a  moment,  for  what  did  their 
scarcity  of  provision  matter,  when  twice  within  recent  months 
they  had  seen  the  multitudes  fed  at  His  instigation  and  example ; 
and  Jesus  asked,  "  Do  you  not  yet  understand?"  The  question 
lays  bare  the  quivering  nerve  of  Jesus;  He  was  stung  by  the 
sense  of  spiritual  isolation.  Yet  we  dare  not  blame  His  disciples 
for  their  failure  to  understand  Him,  since,  though  many  centuries 
have  elapsed,  we,  too,  have  but  ineffectually  apprehended  His 
high  ideals.  Then,  on  the  disciples'  side,  there  possibly  lurked 
no  little  disappointment,  for  things  were  not  happening  as  they 
had  hoped.  Another  journey  northward  was  needed,  so  that  He 
might  privately  repeat  the  instruction  He  had  been  giving  and 
prepare  them  more  fully  for  their  future  work.  Enlightenment 
came  to  them  gradually  as  to  the  blind  man  whom  Jesus  healed. 
At  first  it  was  a  blurred  vision  of  men  like  walking  trees;  only 
with  the  Master's  repeated  touch  could  perfect  clearness  be 
gained.  The  burden  of  His  disciples'  intractability  may  have 
pressed  upon  Jesus  almost  as  heavily  as  the  guilt  of  the  hostile 
Pharisees.  He  sorrowed  that  Israel  was  rejecting  Him,  for 
He  was  conscious  of  being  the  touchstone  of  the  nation's  life; 
through  Him  God  was  offering  the  alternatives  of  life  and 
death — of  inward  spiritual  renewal,  or  of  historic  retribution. 
*  Mark  vii.  13-21 ;  Matt.  xvi.  4-12. 


CHAPTER  IV 

PETER'S  CONFESSION  AT  CESAREA  PHILIPPI 

I.  An  incident  which  occurred  on  this  second  journey  north- 
ward constituted  a  momentous  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  Twelve, 
and  in  the  graduated  disclosure  of  the  claims  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 
After  weeks  of  wandering  Jesus  and  His  disciples  approached 
the  beautiful  city  of  Cassarea  Philippi.  Many  writers  have  de- 
scribed the  noble  architecture  and  natural  beauty  of  this  city  of 
a  famous  name;  but,  for  most  of  us,  its  charm  lies  principally 
in  the  visit  of  Jesus  to  this  neighbourhood ;  and  the  value  of  all  dis- 
coveries about  this  city  would  be  augmented,  did  we  but  know  that 
Jesus  passed  through  its  gates.  His  greatness  as  an  historic  char- 
acter throws  a  lustre  on  any  place  with  which  He  was  connected. 
The  passage  of  His  life  which  links  itself  with  Caesarea  Philippi 
can  only  be  understood,  however,  on  the  condition  that  the  reader 
shall,  as  far  as  possible,  disembarrass  his  mind  of  conventional 
ideas  of  the  Divinity  and  Messiahship  of  Jesus.  Fresh  impres- 
sions of  the  historic  man  are  of  infinitely  higher  value  than 
foregone  dogmatic  conclusions.  Instead  of  beginning  where 
Athanasius  left  off,  we  would  fain  go  back  in  thought  to  the 
troubled  transition  period  of  the  disciples'  training,  and  look 
upon  Jesus  with  their  wondering,  inquiring  eyes  and  awakening 
faith.  Many  might  be  found  to  confess  that,  while  they  have 
resolutely  sought  to  contemplate  Jesus  simply  as  a  great  man 
in  history,  they  have  been  impelled  by  the  logic  of  their  successive 
admissions  to  return  again  to  the  mysterious  formulae  of  the 
creeds  as  setting  forth  more  adequately  than  naturalism  the 
manifold  impressions  made  by  Jesus.  Still,  it  is  probable  that 
every  effort  to  renew  the  historical  impression  of  His  complex, 
mysterious  Personality,  carries  the  mind  a  little  nearer  to  the 
reality.  The  life  of  Jesus  developed  with  answering  fulness  to 
the  stimuli  of  human  environment ;  He  was  at  no  time  insensible 
to  the  appeal  of  national  affairs,  although  throughout  His  crowded 
life  He  retained  a  profound  consciousness  of  the  governing  in- 
fluence of  His  Heavenly  Father.    In  conventional  presentments  of 

265 


266  The  Rejected  King 

Jesus,  He  has  been  described  as  though  He  lived  in  an  impene- 
trable sphere,  where  He  was  psychologically  free  from  the  influ- 
ences of  earth.  While,  however,  it  is  perceived  with  increasing 
clearness  that  He  was  no  common  man,  but  a  unique  Personality, 
still  He  was  not  detached  from  laws  which  rule  the  soul's  growth : 
it  was  in  the  maelstrom  of  great  affairs  that  His  Ministry  took 
shape.  Deep  called  unto  deep,  and  the  pressure  of  other  minds 
and  incidents  upon  Him  evoked  a  deepening,  definitive  sense  of 
His  mission  and  a  clarifying  vision  of  the  Way  of  Sorrow  which 
led  to  its  fulfilment.  This  recognition  of  these  external  factors 
in  our  Lord's  life  does  not  lessen  our  appreciation  of  the  autonomy 
He  displayed;  He  could  not  be  coerced  into  any  loss  of  self- 
mastery,  and  yet  the  very  genius  of  His  career  was  that  it  was 
worked  out  in  fullest  reciprocity  with  all  the  factors  operant  in 
the  plexus  of  human  relationships. 

2.  For  Jesus  Himself,  as  also  for  the  disciples,  these  were 
weeks  of  sad  questioning  and  trial.  The  very  vehemence  of  His 
subsequent  rebuke  of  Simon's  suggestion,  that  it  would  not  be 
needful  for  the  Christ  to  suffer,  indicates  that  it  was  the  specific 
temptation  which  he  had  wrestled  against  during  this  IVandcr- 
leben.  He  had  not  failed  to  perceive,  from  an  early  period  of 
His  Ministry,  that  He  must  go  counter  to  the  popular  Messianism, 
still,  when  it  actually  came  about  that  both  Judaea  and  Galilee 
rejected  Him  as  a  mere  pretender.  He  was  keenly  sensitive  to 
the  humiliation.  He  was  wounded  with  disappointment  in  the 
house  of  His  friends,  and  His  Ministry  became  overshadowed 
with  presentiments  of  evil.  He  wavered  not  an  instant  in  His 
loyalty  to  the  Ideal  given  to  Him,  but  His  own  stability  of  pur- 
pose gave  Him  no  immunity  from  natural  grief.  This  popular 
rejection  of  His  claims  gave  Him,  however,  the  long-looked-for 
opportunity  of  instructing  His  disciples.  And  during  this  period 
of  wandering  we  must  imagine  His  frequent  retirement  to  places 
where  the  disciples  might  listen  to  Him  without  distraction. 
His  special  themes  were  the  nature  of  God's  Reign  and  the 
Spiritual  ministry  of  the  Messiah,  varied  by  occasional  warnings 
against  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees.  In  Dante's  biography,  we 
see  how  the  banishment  from  Florence,  against  which  the  poet 
raged  in  wounded  patriotism,  gave  both  the  leisure  from  high 
politics  and  the  spiritual  discipline  needed  to  enable  him  to  write 
his  vision  of  the  Soul's  pilgrimage  through  Hell,  Purgatory  and 


Peter's  Confession  at  Csesarea  Philippi       267 

Paradise.  Similarly,  the  exile  of  Jesus  gave  to  His  great  soul 
a  new  discipline  of  suffering,  and  prepared  Him  for  new  insights 
into  the  significance  of  His  own  mission.  The  content,  applica- 
bility and  value  of  the  ideas  most  intimately  possessed  by  the 
mind  are  not  fully  known  until  they  have  been  exploited  in  all 
possible  variations  of  experience;  until  sorrow  as  well  as  joy 
comes  to  the  soul,  one  does  not  know  with  adequacy  the  potency 
and  resource  of  his  own  intuitions.  In  this  shadowed  passage 
of  Christ's  Ministry,  while  He  found  opportunities  for  instructing 
His  disciples,  He  was  entering  more  deeply  into  the  heritage 
of  His  own  thoughts,  acquiring  new  insights,  and  bracing  His 
will  to  meet  the  enlarged  demands  upon  His  initiative  and  en- 
durance. Even  prior  to  this  period  He  had  caught  fore-glimpses 
of  the  ultimate  trials  through  which  He  must  pass;  and  now  at 
every  crisis  the  words  of  Caiaphas,  which  in  all  probability  had 
been  reported  to  Him,  would  leap  to  remembrance  with  added 
weight  of  meaning.  Jesus  did  not  flinch,  however,  from  the 
tragic  issues  of  His  mission  as  the  deepening  shadows  closed 
upon  Him:  while  appeals  came  to  Him  to  make  concessions 
to  the  popular  Messianism,  He  maintained  a  steadfast  mind.  His 
meat  and  drink  was  to  do  the  Father's  will,  and  since  He  had 
received  the  chrism  of  the  Spirit  this  conscience  had  been  His 
pole-star — fixed  and  luminous;  and  thus  guided  He  never  wav- 
ered as  He  saw  the  road  narrowing  down  into  one  long  avenue 
at  the  end  of  which  He  already  perceived  the  dim  shadow  of 
the  Roman  Cross. 

3.  If  we  could  be  sure  that  St.  John's  account  of  the  crisis 
of  uncertainty  and  of  the  decisive  choice  made  by  the  apostles 
is  identical  with  the  record  of  experiences  of  these  weeks  of 
trial  which  culminated  at  Caesarea  Philippi,  considerable  enlight- 
enment would  be  thrown  upon  the  method  and  amount  of  liberty 
employed  by  the  respective  evangelists.  As  already  indicated, 
we  incline  to  treat  the  Johannine  account  ^  as  a  succinct  summary 
of  a  real  apostolic  reminiscence  of  the  fluctuations  of  belief  going 
on  among  the  people  at  this  period,  and  of  Simon's  bold  Mes- 
sianic confession  on  behalf  of  the  disciples.  If  this  surmise  be 
correct  then  St.  John's  narrative  afifords  us  a  valuable  historic 
supplement  to  the  Petrine  tradition  found  in  St.  Mark.  The 
general  view  is  that  the  Petrine  tradition  is  told  in  its  earliest 

*John  vi.  64-71. 


268  The  Rejected  King 

form  in  St.  Mark,  and  that  the  author  of  St.  Matthew  has  given 
only  another  version  of  the  accepted  narrative.  It  may  be  noted 
in  passing  that  it  is  fallacious  to  imagine  that  one  historical 
writing  must  be  more  correct  than  another  because  it  is  the 
earlier  version.  It  is  common  knowledge  that  a  later  historian 
has  often  a  better  chance  of  giving  a  true  representation  of  a 
variously  reported  occurrence.  It  ought  not  to  be  assumed  that 
St.  Matthew  is  less  reliable  than  St.  Mark,  even  should  it  be 
proved  that  the  first-named  evangelist  used  the  work  of  his 
forerunner.  With  this  general  precaution  we  pass  to  observe  that 
both  these  two  evangelists  are  agreed  in  representing  that  the 
incident  which  took  place  near  the  city  of  Caesarea  Philippi,  was 
the  culmination  of  a  process  and  the  turning-point  in  the  ministry 
of  Jesus  Christ.^  While  in  St.  Luke's  narrative  the  quality  of 
vivid  and  graphic  portraiture  is  characteristically  weakened  in 
comparison  with  St.  Mark's  account,  still,  the  third  evangelist 
appears  to  me  to  give  the  true  psychology  of  the  moment;  and 
this  he  does,  perhaps  accidentally,  in  an  introductory  sentence 
which,  in  its  superficial  inconsistency,  suggests  the  frayed  ends 
of  a  literary  suture.  "  As  He  was  praying  alone,  the  disciples 
were  with  Him."  Although  He  was  with  His  disciples,  yet 
He  was  alone  in  so  far  as  their  thoughts  were  remote  from  His. 
Jesus  ever  stood  in  closer  relation  to  His  Heavenly  Father  than 
to  His  human  friends.  His  mood  was  one  of  quivering  intensity 
and  eager  interrogation.  He  was  engaged  in  mystic  dialogue 
with  the  Divine  Spirit;  perhaps  the  disciples  observed  His  lips 
moving  as  one  who  spake  with  an  unseen  friend,  and  they  knew 
that  even  as  they  walked  toward  the  city.  He  prayed.  Yet  as  He 
turned  a  frequent  wistful  gaze  upon  them,  they  must  have  an- 
ticipated the  disclosure  of  some  new  thing  in  the  ministry  of 
their  Lord.  Thus,  by  juxtaposition  of  all  four  narratives,  we 
get  a  complex,  vivid  impression  of  a  culminating  moment  in 
the  history  of  the  disciples ;  we  catch  the  sense  of  stress  and 
strain,  of  trial  and  uncertainty,  of  proximity  to  Jesus  in  the 
flesh  and  remoteness  in  feeling,  of  vacillation  and  doubt  crossed 
by  flashes  of  sympathy;  and  in  the  Mind  of  Jesus,  too,  there 
was  going  on  a  high  debate ;  He  was  wounded  by  the  sudden 
desertion  of  the  fickle  crowds ;  He  was  weighing  alternative 
rights  and  duties  which  seemed  in  conflict ;  He  was  seeking  to 
know  the  will  of  His  Father,  and  He  was  anxious  about  the 
^  Mark  viii.  27ff;   Matt.  xvi.  I3ff. 


Peter's  Confession  at  Csesarea  Philippi       269 

understanding  and  loyalty  of  His  disciples.     "  As  He  was  pray- 
ing alone  .    .    .   the  disciples  were  with  Him." 

4.  And  what  was  the  thing  that  loomed  so  tragically  upon 
His  inward  vision  and  thrilled  His  soul  so  strangely?  It  was 
the  outward  form  of  the  Cross — made,  as  one  has  said,  of 
collision  and  paradox, — which  was  destined  to  give  the  final  shape 
and  contour  to  His  dedicated  spirit  of  complete  surrender  to  the 
will  and  purpose  of  the  Heavenly  Father.  The  self-giving  which 
had  hitherto  characterized  His  Ministry  was  now  to  be  touched 
into  absolute  sacrifice  of  self.  In  a  general  manner  Jesus  had 
apprehended  the  whole  body  of  ethical  truth  and  spiritual  re- 
lationship in  the  temptation  which  met  Him  at  the  beginning  of 
His  public  life ;  but,  as  light  is  manifested  only  when  it  impinges 
upon  an  object,  so  the  inner  implications  and  practical  issues  of 
truth  are  perceived  only  when  it  is  applied  to  the  concrete  prob- 
lems of  life.  After  His  collisions  with  the  authorities  and 
leaders  of  national  life,  Jesus  could  not  but  foresee  the  inevitable, 
grim  results  of  His  struggle  against  the  falsehood  and  formalism 
of  His  age.  From  the  Mountain  so  exceedingly  high,  whereon 
He  had  in  spirit  repelled  the  Satanic  suggestion  to  pursue  a 
political  ideal,  Jesus  may  have  seen  in  the  far  distance  the 
possibility  of  sufifering  such  as  ever  confronts  the  true  Servant 
of  God;  but  then,  in  subsequent  months,  the  winding  path  of 
His  experience  as  He  pursued  His  tasks  was  not  unattractive 
and  void  of  gracious  episodes:  now,  however.  He  had  come  to 
a  point  of  elevation, — the  green  pastures  and  still  waters  were 
all  passed  by, — and  looking  forward  and  downward  He  saw  a 
dreary,  hard  road,  at  the  end  of  which  there  stood  the  shameful 
gallows.  The  world's  greatest  benefactors  have  been  its  suffer- 
ers— men  and  women  who  have  dedicated  their  lives  to  noble 
enthusiasms  and  worthy  ends.  The  element  of  spiritual  value 
in  such  remediable  suffering  is  not  the  blind,  brute  endurance 
of  unescapable  physical  afflictions,  but  the  voluntary  sacrifice 
of  self  in  varying  degrees  for  the  good  of  nations.  The  Hebrew 
prophets  were  martyrs  of  righteousness,  who  by  their  loyalty 
to  Jehovah  formed  a  spiritual  Israel — a  real  Church  within  the 
nation.  No  one  will  ima^gine  that  the  fidelity  unto  death  of 
Socrates,  in  his  resolute  quest  for  truth,  has  been  without  be- 
neficent effect  in  the  intellectual  progress  of  the  world.  And  as 
we   think   of    Galileo,    Dante,    Milton,   and    a   host   of   others, 


270  The  Rejected  King 

we  perceive  that  suffering  has  been  an  unescapable  condition 
of  intellectual  and  spiritual  advancement.  At  the  head  of  these 
roadmakers  of  history  stands  Jesus,  who  declared  "  I  am  the 
Way," — unique  in  greatness,  preeminent  in  suffering.  With  their 
indisputable  claim  to  greatness,  we  cannot  but  detect  at  times, 
in  the  lives  of  Jeremiah  and  all  who  are  represented  by  the 
tremendous  dramatic  character  of  Job,  a  certain  querulous  in- 
terrogation and  complaint:  so  that  we  are  more  than  half  in- 
clined to  accept  the  Greek  notion  of  a  Nemesis  working  at  times 
slowly  and  secretly,  at  times  openly  and  climactically,  in  aveng- 
ing some  hidden  wrong  or  turbulent  pride  in  its  victims.  "  For 
a  message,  newly  sent  from  snow-crowned  Parnassus,  hath 
darted  like  a  flash,  bidding  us  do  all  to  track  the  unknown  man. 
Deep  in  the  woodland  wild  he  roams,  'mid  caves  and  rocks,  e'en 
as  a  bull  forlorn  and  wretched  on  a  path  of  woe,  seeking  to 
shun  the  oracle  spoken  at  earth's  centre;  but  it  lives  on  for  aye 
and  hovers  round  him  ever."  ^  The  uniqueness  of  the  Sufferings 
of  Jesus  lay  in  His  marvellous  freedom  of  all  consciousness  of 
personal  sin,  so  that  He  did  not  regard  His  inflictions  as  bearing 
aught  of  punishment  for  Himself.  Having  already  fought  the 
inward  battle  and  conquered  all  self-will,  this  Man  of  Sorrows 
now  looked  forward  to  a  fate  of  unexcelled  ignominy,  not 
indeed  without  inward  tremors  and  tense  excitement  of  spirit, 
but  with  unwavering  courage  and  moral  conviction  of  Truth 
and  Right. 

5.  But  the  work  that  Jesus  had  to  do  depended  upon  His  dis- 
ciples as  well  as  on  Himself;  the  end  in  view  was  not  merely 
one  of  self-discipline,  but  also  the  training  of  the  Twelve :  hence, 
He  suddenly  awoke  from  His  reverie,  and  startled  His  gloomy, 
vacillating  followers  with  the  inquiry,  "  Who  do  men  say  that  I 
am  ?  "  We  have  learned  already  that  the  apparent  egotism  of 
Jesus  was  but  the  mask  of  noblest  altruism:  such  a  question 
sprang  not  from  the  common  disease  of  vanity,  but  from  His 
consciousness  of  Himself  as  the  revelation  of  God's  Reign  in 
the  world.  How  far  this  question  was  simply  an  introduction 
to  the  more  pertinent  one  that  followed,  and  how  far  it  arose 
from  a  real  desire  to  know  what  men  were  saying  about  His 
work,  cannot  be  decided  with  any  exactitude.  Jesus  certainly 
could  not  have  been  indifferent  to  the  attitude  of  the  people,  since 
^CEdipus  the  King,  by  Sophocles,  trans,  by  E.  P.  Coleridge. 


Peter's  Confession  at  Caesarea  Philippi       271 

their  tone  of  speech  about  Himself  was  clearly  indicative  of 
their  moral  relationship  toward  God.  He  knew  that  many  were 
keenly  disappointed  in  that  He  refused  to  be  the  Messiah  of 
political  hopes ;  but  now  He  learned  from  His  disciples  that  there 
were  still  a  number  of  thoughtful  people  who  believed  Him  to  be 
a  great  prophet  like  John  the  Baptist,  Elijah  or  Jeremiah;  that, 
while  the  Pharisees  and  leaders  of  the  national  life  ascribed  to 
Him  some  devilish  inspiration,  some  of  the  people  believed  that 
He  was  divinely  commissioned  as  a  Messenger  of  truth.  But 
this  reply  from  His  disciples  evoked  a  more  direct  appeal: 
"  But  you — who  do  you  say  that  I  am?"  It  was  a  moment  of 
supreme  importance  in  the  discipline  of  the  Twelve — a  fact 
manifest  in  the  emotion  betrayed  by  the  Master.  He  had  stripped 
from  their  minds,  or  had  sought  to  strip  from  their  minds,  every 
vestige  of  the  popular  delusion  about  His  Messianic  functions; 
and  now  He  thrust  upon  them  the  suggestion  that  He  is  the 
Messiah  in  a  deeper,  nobler  and  more  spiritual  way,  Jesus  longed 
to  have  them  believe  in  Him,  since  the  Kingdom  of  God  hinged 
upon  this  faith;  and  until  they  had  acknowledged  Him  to  be 
the  true  Christ,  it  was  impossible  to  make  them  understand  what 
work  He  had  to  do.  In  the  momentary  silence  which  followed, 
their  very  hearts  were  searched  with  the  vibrant  appeal;  there 
was  no  escape  from  the  constraint  of  this  solemn  interrogation. 
However  long  the  silence  seemed,  it  really  endured  only  a  few 
moments :  then  Simon,  touched  by  the  exaltation  of  the  Master's 
mood,  spoke  as  one  in  ecstasy,  "  Thou  art  the  Christ,"  adding, 
maybe,  St.  Matthew's  phrase,  "  the  Son  of  the  living  God."  It 
was  a  Divine  revelation  to  the  man — a  flash  of  intuition,  which 
drew  into  itself  the  best  thoughts,  feelings  and  experiences  of 
the  past  two  years.  The  lowly  origin  of  the  Carpenter,  the 
familiarity  of  daily  intercourse,  the  shocks  of  disappointment, 
the  delay  of  hopes  making  the  heart  sick,  the  haughty  repudia- 
tion of  Jesus  by  the  authorized  teachers  of  Israel,  and  the  ebbing 
tide  of  His  popularity  in  Galilee,  might  have  almost  justified  a 
fisherman's  inability  to  decide  this  momentous  question.  But,  in 
spite  of  all  doubts  and  dread  uncertainties,  there  was  that  in 
Simon's  soul  which  leapt  up  in  answer  to  the  Master's  word, 
— leal-heartedness  and  a  sudden  sense  of  the  greatness  of  the 
Reality  in  Jesus; — impelled  by  this  Spirit,  he  trampled  down  all 
doubts,  all  prudent  cautions  and  reservations,  and  burst  out  in 
enthusiastic  confession  of   faith  and  loyalty.     St.  John,  if  he 


272  The  Rejected  King 

records  the  same  moment,  gives  a  variant  report,  but  a  confession 
essentially  identical  with  that  in  the  Synoptics,  "  For  our  part 
we  have  believed  and  know  that  Thou  art  the  Holy  One  of  God." 

6.  We  make  no  unprovable  claim  that  our  Lord's  recorded 
reply  reproduces  His  very  words;  but  who  can  doubt  that  this 
impassioned  eulogy  breathes  the  passionate  gratitude  which  filled 
the  heart  of  Jesus  at  that  moment? 


"  Blessed  art  thou,  Simon  Bar-Jona ! 
For  flesh  and  blood  did  not  reveal  that  to  thee; 
It  was  My  Father  who  is  in  heaven. 
And  I  tell  thee, 

Thou  art  Peter;  and  on  this  rock  I  will  build  My  community, 
And  the  gates  of  hades  shall  not  prevail  against  it. 
I  will  give  thee  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
And   whatsoever  thou   shalt  prohibit   on   earth  shall   be   prohibited  in 

heaven ; 
And  whatever  thou  shalt  permit  on  earth  shall  be  permitted  in  heaven." 


Only  the  nausea  of  endless  controversy  could  suggest  that  this 
text  is  an  ecclesiastical  invention ;  for,  while  it  gives  the  im- 
pression of  naturalness  on  the  lips  of  Jesus  and  harmonizes  with 
our  general  notion  of  His  character,  it  seems  utterly  beyond  the 
scope  of  apostolic  imagination.  The  mere  juxtaposition  of  Jesus' 
swift  rebuke  of  Simon's  subsequent  remonstrance  with  this  glow- 
ing eulogy,  is  sufficient  to  vindicate  the  Gospels  from  all  accusa- 
tions of  unveracity  and  romance;  but  this  matchless  tribute  of 
praise  and  the  stern  censure  are  recorded  because  Jesus  actually 
uttered  them.  This  encomium  is  the  overflow  of  the  Master's 
joyous  appreciation  of  faith ;  it  is  not  the  artificial  product  of 
theological  reasoning;  it  is  patently  the  spontaneous,  glad  recog- 
nition of  the  disciple's  assured  faith.  We  wonder  not  to  detect 
the  thrill  of  ecstasy  in  the  answer  of  Jesus,  for  the  whole  purpose 
of  His  Ministry  had  been  to  lead  His  followers  up  to  this  faith. 
His  cause  was  now  assured ;  His  Church  should  be  built  upon  the 
character  created  by  this  confession ;  He  no  longer  doubts  the 
capacity  and  reliability  of  the  men  whom  Simon  represented: 
but  to  Simon  himself,  as  the  confessing  apostle.  He  promises  the 
keys  of  His  community  and  the  power  of  legislating  for  His 
Church.  It  is  but  just  to  the  claims  of  some  distinguished 
scholars  to  acknowledge  that  the  clause  relating  to  the  building 


Peter's  Confession  at  Csesarea  Phillppi       273 

of  His  Church  (Hat  inl  tavrrf  r^  nirpa  oiHoSo/xi^ffO)  jnov  rr\v 
€HH\tfffiav)  is  regarded  as  a  late  interpolation  in  St.  Matthew, 
or  as  evidence  of  the  late  date  of  his  gospel.  No  author  before 
Tertullian  refers  to  it;  and  such  an  omission,  by  advocates  of 
the  Petrine  authority  of  the  Roman  Church,  is  well-nigh  un- 
accountable if  the  clause  be  authentic.  Wendt  ventures  to  recon- 
struct the  passage  thus :  "  Happy  art  thou,  Simon  Bar-Jona. 
Thou  art  Peter,  and  the  gates  of  Hades  shall  not  prevail  against 
thee."  Another  distinguished  scholar  writes,  "  It  is  not  a  ques- 
tion of  whether  Jesus  gathered  a  circle  of  intimate  companions, 
whom  He  trained  to  propagate  His  ideas,  or  of  how  far  He 
anticipated  a  future  career  for  them  which  would  involve  His 
memory  and  spirit  as  their  religious  authority.  The  question  is 
whether,  with  His  belief  in  His  own  speedy  return  and  the 
evident  limits  by  which  His  outlook  was  beset,  Jesus  could  have 
laid  down  the  details  of  an  ecclesiastical  structure  ^  which  pre- 
supposed a  settled  and  expanding  future;  in  a  word,  whether 
Jesus,  the  religious  Idealist,  the  prophet,  the  martyr,  was  also 
the  religious  organizer."  It  is  sufficient  at  this  point  to  state 
what  we  shall  seek  to  prove  in  a  subsequent  chapter,  that  Jesus 
did  look  forward  to  the  future,  and  prepare  for  its  needs  by 
consciously  laying  the  foundations  of  His  Church. 

7.  The  fact  of  tremendous  moment  upon  which  stress  must 
be  laid  is  that  Jesus  accepted  the  terms  of  Simon's  confession; 
and  thus,  while  He  repudiates  the  popular  conception  of  the  Mes- 
sianic work,  He  claimed  explicitly  to  be  the  true  Messiah.  Baur, 
in  his  historical  survey  of  the  origins  of  Christianity,  lays  em- 
phasis upon  this  Messianic  idea  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  and  in 
the  growth  of  the  Church  as  central,  organic  and  conservative 
in  the  new  Religion.  He  says,  "  Had  not  the  Messianic  Idea, 
the  idea  in  which  Jewish  hopes  had  their  profoundest  expression, 
fixed  itself  on  the  Person  of  Jesus,  and  caused  Him  to  be  regarded 
as  the  Messiah,  who  had  come  for  the  redemption  of  His  people, 
and  in  whom  the  promise  to  the  fathers  was  fulfilled,  the  belief 
in  Him  could  never  have  had  a  power  of  such  far-reaching  in- 
fluence in  history."  ^  There  are  not  a  few  who  believe  it  would 
have  been  wiser  had  Jesus  discarded  a  title  marked  by  ambiguity 
and  limitation.     But  Jesus  did  not  cut  Himself  off  from  the 

*Matt.  xvi.  18;  xviii.  15!. 

*  The  First  Three  Christian  Centuries,  vol.  i.,  p.  37,  Eng.  Ed. 


274  The  Rejected  King 

historic  past.  He  came  to  fulfil,  not  to  destroy;  He  saw  the 
Divine  preparation  in  the  election  and  discipline  of  Israel,  and 
sought  to  conserve  and  complete  all  that  "  the  Law  and  the 
Prophets  "  had  begun.  The  reproach  of  the  Jews  fell  upon  Him 
not  because  He  called  Himself  the  Messiah,  but  because  He 
definitely  and  insistently  repudiated  the  accepted  interpretation 
of  the  Messianic  office.  It  was  no  new  claim  that  He  suddenly 
sprang  upon  His  unprepared  disciples;  at  Caesarea  Philippi  He 
only  drew  into  explicit  utterance  what  had  been  implied  from 
the  beginning  of  His  Ministry.  There  was  nothing  novel  in 
the  application  of  this  name  to  Jesus,  for  the  disciples  had  fol- 
lowed Him  because  they  hoped  it  was  He  who  should  be  the 
Messiah.  But  the  true  inwardness  and  originality  of  Simon's 
confession  lay  in  the  faith  that  Jesus  was  the  true  and  only 
Christ,  in  spite  of  His  renunciation  of  political  and  temporal 
power.  The  silence  of  Jesus  during  all  the  previous  months 
about  His  Messiahship  was  due  to  no  uncertainty  in  His  own 
mind,  but  to  the  danger  involved  in  any  premature  emphasis 
upon  a  title  so  full  of  political  significance  in  that  age.  It  was 
one  of  the  things  that  the  disciples  could  not  bear  until  they  had 
passed  the  crisis  at  Capernaum  which  resulted  in  the  rejection 
of  Jesus  by  the  leaders  of  the  people.  But  the  time  had  come 
for  the  breaking  through  of  all  reserve,  for  the  declaration  of 
the  full  self-consciousness  of  Jesus.  How  utterly  immune  from 
fanaticism  He  was  in  making  this  claim  becomes  apparent  as  we 
study  the  meaning  He  put  into  it. 

8.  The  self -disclosure  of  Jesus  was  graduated  and  fitted  to 
meet  the  advancing  intelligence  and  moral  growth  of  His  dis- 
ciples. By  His  teaching  Jesus  had  made  the  purely  national 
ideal  of  the  Messiah  the  vehicle  of  a  mighty  spiritual  claim  to 
be  King  over  men's  minds  and  hearts.  As  He  appropriated  the 
title,  He  transformed  its  content  by  associating  it  anew  with  the 
Isaianic  conception  of  the  Suffering  Servant  of  Jehovah.  As 
Prince  Gautama  in  India  had  received  the  ideal-title  of  the 
Buddha — "  the  enlightened  One  "  ^ — so  Jesus  received  this  national 

* "  But  here  is  the  difference  between  Buddhism  and  Christianity. 
There  is  no  trace  of  Messianic  prophecies  in  India.  The  expectation  of 
a  Buddha  has  never  been  traced  in  pre-Buddhistic  writings.  All  we  can 
say  is  that  the  idiomatic  phrase  of  '  the  blind  will  see,  and  the  lame  will 
walk,'  existed  in  the  ancient  language  of  India,  and  was  adopted  by  the 
Buddhists  like  many  others."    Max  MuUer,  Physical  Religion,  app.  xv. 


Peter's  Confession  at  C^sarea  Philippi       275 

title  of  "  the  anointed  One,"  and  by  His  teaching  and  life  gave  it 
a  connotation  as  broad  as  humanity.  In  claiming  to  be  the  Mes- 
siah, Jesus  did  but  explicate  the  official  consciousness  in  His  self- 
chosen  name — the  Son  of  Man;  and  it  is  by  the  correlation  and 
interpenetration  of  these  two  titles  that  we  read  aright  the  mean- 
ing of  each.  As  Son  of  Man  Jesus  identified  Himself  with  our 
race ;  yet  as  His  disciples  grew  more  and  more  impressed  by  His 
transcendence,  uniqueness  and  preeminence,  they  chose  to  call 
Him  the  Son  of  God.  Israel  had  been  regarded  as  Jehovah's 
Son;  and,  in  applying  this  name  to  Jesus,  the  disciples  gave  an 
implied  recognition  to  the  fact  that  in  Him  all  the  spiritual  value 
of  the  chosen  race  was  embodied.  In  confessing  Jesus  to  be  the 
Son  of  God  the  disciples  spoke,  not  as  schoolmen,  but  simply  as 
enthusiastic  believers  in  their  Lord  Jesus,  expressing  thus  their 
ineradicable  conviction  that  He  was  divinely  sent  to  bring  in  the 
Reign  of  God.  And  in  every  succeeding  age,  as  men  have  sought 
some  formula  of  confession,  to  answer  the  question  Jesus  asked 
at  Csesarea  Philippi,  they  have  been  forced  back  again  and  again 
upon  the  inspired  language  of  the  Galilean  fisherman :  "  Thou  art 
the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God."  After  passing  through 
the  whole  gamut  of  speculation  concerning  the  mystery  of  His 
personality,  and  after  unconsciously  reproducing  all  the  succes- 
sion of  insights  and  errors  which  have  been  tested  by  the  Church 
Councils,  men  confess  that  for  them  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  Man 
and  the  Son  of  God.  Although  we  are  indebted  not  a  little  to 
Simon  Peter  for  his  brave  loyalty  and  inspired  intuition  at 
Caesarea  Philippi,  it  must  not  be  imagined  that  he  and  his  fellow- 
disciples  were  emancipated  at  once  from  the  thraldom  of  con- 
ventional opinions;  they  had  to  work  out  their  own  salvation  in 
subsequent  trials,  fighting  doubts,  vacillations  and  the  despondency 
of  temporary  defeat.  Still,  it  remains  true  that  the  minds  of  these 
disciples  had  been  caught  up  by  the  breath  of  Divine  inspiration, 
and  they  were  given  a  revelation  of  the  real  office  of  Jesus  as 
the  Spiritual  Messiah  of  our  race.  This  glorious  intuition  was 
simply  the  fore-gleam  of  that  enduring  illumination  attained 
unto  through  the  experience  of  the  chrism  of  the  Holy  Spirit; 
and  when  the  Pentecost  had  fully  come,  the  disciples  entered  into 
the  heritage  of  this  faith,  which  had  been  so  slowly  acquired. 
And  in  face  of  the  strong  humanitarian  naturalism  of  modern 
thought,  we  see  not  how  we  can  abandon  the  historicity  of  this 
revelation  of  the  Christhood  of  Jesus  and  yet  retain  the  dis- 


276  The  Rejected  King 

tinctive  and  dynamical  faith  of  the  Christian  religion.  Once 
admit  that  Jesus  claimed  to  be  the  Messiah  and,  unless  His 
sanity  be  denied,  this  admission  carries  with  it  an  indubitable 
proof  of  His  transcendence,  and  a  whole  series  of  implications 
belonging  to  faith  in  the  supernatural. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  MESSIAH'S  FIRST  ANNOUNCEMENT  OF  THE 

PASSION' 

I.  The  consciousness  of  Jesus  that  He  was  the  Messiah, 
whether  due  to  intuition  or  the  result  of  study  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  meditation  upon  the  prophecies,  shows  that  He  believed 
Himself  to  fulfil  the  chief  end  of  Israel's  Divine  election: — the 
purpose  wherewith  God  had  chosen  Abraham  was  realized  in 
Jesus  of  Nazareth.  This  claim  to  be  the  Messiah  was  an  ex- 
pression of  the  continuity  of  Divine  revelation  in  the  history  of 
mankind,  and  a  disclosure  of  the  mediatorial  significance  of 
Christ's  person.  When  the  implications  of  this  claim  to  be  the 
Messiah  are  thought  out,  we  find  ourselves  in  possession  of  a 
philosophy  of  history,  and  learn,  too,  that  St.  Paul's  argument 
concerning  the  Divine  "  Prothesis  "  was  logically  involved  in  the 
self-consciousness  of  Jesus.  "  This  is  the  true  theodicy,  the 
justification  of  God  in  history.  The  human  spirit  is  capable  of 
being  reconciled  with  the  course  of  past  and  present  history 
only  when  it  sees  that  that  which  has  happened  and  which  is 
daily  happening  has  been  and  is,  not  only  not  without  God,  but 
in  an  essential  sense  the  work  of  God  Himself."  ^  In  Hebrew 
thought  and  hopes,  the  Messianic  ideal  was  national  and  limited ; 
but  in  the  mind  of  Jesus  the  national  ideal  effloresced  into  a  reali- 
zation of  the  Divine  idea  or  plan  in  the  whole  of  humanity. 
In  calling  Himself  the  Messiah,  therefore,  Jesus  of  Nazareth  re- 
nounced not  only  the  marring  selfishness  of  individualism,  but 
also  the  national  delimitation  of  the  ideal.  As  the  Son  of  Man 
He  perceived  the  Spirit  and  purpose  of  God  in  all  men,  and  said, 
"  Lo,  I  am  come  to  do  thy  will,  O  God !  "  The  seeming  egoism 
in  the  repeated  claims  of  Jesus  to  be  the  Messiah  sprang  from 
this  law  of  obedience  to  the  Divine  Will.  We  have  seen  that  it 
was  with  infinite  carefulness  that  He  trained  His  disciples,  strip- 

*Mark  viii.  31;  ix.  i;  Matt.  xvi.  21-28;  Luke  ix.  22-27. 
*  Hegel,  Philosophy  of  the  State  and  of  History,  An  E:tposition  by  G.  S. 
Morris,  p.  306. 

277 


278  The  Rejected  King 

ping  their  minds  of  popular  misconceptions,  in  which  even  John 
the  Baptist  shared,  and  yet  so  preparing  them  that  in  the  hour 
of  disappointment  and  disillusionment  Simon  avowed  their  behef 
that  He  was,  nevertheless,  the  true  Messiah  of  God.  But  the 
eulogy  that  reveals  the  Master's  joy  in  this  confession  is  fol- 
lowed by  a  prohibition  of  any  immediate  annunciation  of  His 
office  by  the  disciples.  He  would  fain  avoid  any  premature 
step  which  might  revive  popular  belief  in  His  political  power  and 
precipitate  the  hostility  of  the  Pharisees  into  open  violence.  The 
next  stage  in  the  instruction  of  His  disciples  consisted  in  explain- 
ing the  suffering  which  God's  Anointed  was  called  upon  to  pass 
through.  From  this  time,  as  the  two  first  evangelists  show,  a 
momentous  change  came  into  the  character  of  Christ's  teaching. 
He  began  to  teach  and  show  what  things  were  about  to  befall 
Him.^  There  was  a  danger  that  in  the  following  days  Simon 
and  His  companions  might  lose  the  fine  spiritual  vision  of  the 
Ideal ;  and  then,  remembering  only  that  the  Master  had  accepted 
the  Messianic  ideal,  they  might  become  obsessed  by  materialistic 
hopes  and  fond  dreams  of  imperial  glory.  Such  false  optimism 
would  impart  a  new  boldness  to  their  demeanour ;  but  if  this  began 
to  appear,  Jesus  at  once  repressed  it  by  teaching  that  the  Messiah 
was  to  be  rejected  and  killed.  Herein  is  seen  the  wonderful 
originality  of  Jesus.  In  an  age  immersed  in  popular  delusions 
concerning  the  restoration  of  the  Davidic  dynasty,  He  alone 
perceived  the  meaning  and  application  of  the  gracious,  sad 
prophecy  that  Jehovah's  Servant  must  suffer  and  die. 

2.  With  almost  prophetic  insight  Plato  had  described  the 
conflict  between  justice  and  injustice  in  the  world,  between  truth 
and  popular  delusions,  issuing  in  a  destiny  of  suffering  for 
anyone  who  realized  the  perfect  ideal  of  justice:  "They  will  tell 
you  that  the  just  man  who  is  thought  unjust  will  be  scourged, 
racked,  bound — will  have  his  eyes  burnt  out;  and  at  last,  after 
suffering  every  kind  of  evil,  he  will  be  impaled."  ^  Jesus,  too, 
has  learned  this  strange,  sad  lesson ;  and,  having  surrendered  His 
own  will  to  the  Father's,  He  was  willing  to  suffer  as  well  as 
teach,  to  die  as  well  as  heal;  and  He  now  began  to  prepare  His 
disciples  for  this  end.  Inquiry  is  sometimes  made  as  to  when 
Jesus  Himself  first  gained  a  clear  prevision  of  the  final  tragedy ; 

Mark,   nal  ifp^aro  didaoKeiv;    Matt.,  ano  rdre  ijp^aTo  'I^aovc  SeiKvieiv,  k.  t.  X. 
^  Plato,  Jowett's  trans.,  bk.  ii.,  361. 


First  Announcement  of  the  Passion  279 

to  this  we  have  no  conclusive  answer.  During  His  temptation 
in  the  wilderness,  as  He  paused  awhile  on  the  threshold  of  His 
Ministry,  He  saw  clearly  the  alternative  ideals  of  a  political 
Messiahship  such  as  was  demanded  by  the  populace,  and  a 
spiritual  ministry  of  pure  goodness  in  absolute  obedience  to  the 
Divine  Will.  Voluntarily,  Jesus  preferred  this  and  rejected  that; 
and,  instead  of  relying  upon  the  favour  of  the  fickle  people,  He 
went  to  His  work  saying,  "  Uphold  me  by  Thy  free  spirit."  We 
do  not  think  that  He  saw  all  the  events  which  were  to  happen 
at  the  end  of  His  Ministry,  although,  through  the  absence  of 
chronological  arrangement  in  the  Gospels,  and  through  the 
natural  proneness  of  the  evangelists  to  interpret  sayings  and 
deeds  in  the  light  of  the  latest  developments,  contrary  views  on 
this  matter  are  inevitable.  Had  He  foreseen  the  Passion  and 
the  Cross  as  certain  from  the  beginning,  there  would  have  been 
a  histrionic  or  docetic  character  in  His  earlier  attempts  to  per- 
suade the  Jews  to  accept  Him  as  their  Spiritual  Messiah.  There 
was  a  great  difference  between  the  first  and  the  last  parts  of  His 
Ministry.  At  the  beginning  the  gracious  form  of  the  Son  of 
Man  moves  in  a  golden  light  of  morning;  we  seem  to  perceive 
a  radiant  joy  in  His  presence  as  He  walks  with  His  disciples 
among  the  Galilean  hills;  at  the  end  the  sky  is  darkened,  and 
the  scene  is  that  of  a  winter's  stormy  night,  and  He  appears 
as  the  Man  of  Sorrows.  The  one  abiding  principle  of  His  Min- 
istry was  His  voluntary  subjection  to  the  will  of  His  Heavenly 
Father.  Any  presentiment  or  prophetic  anticipation  of  a  tragic 
end,  which  may  have  sometimes  shadowed  His  thought,  belonged 
rather  to  His  subliminal  consciousness  and  not  to  His  wakeful 
and  surface  self.  It  appears  as  though  He  really  grasped  the 
thought  of  His  passion  and  death  at  the  time  of  His  withdrawal 
from  Galilee  into  heathen  territory,  when  He  felt  so  keenly  dis- 
appointed with  those  who  had  listened  to  His  teaching.  It 
seemed  to  Him  that  a  great  turning-point  had  come  to  Jerusalem ; 
and  when,  by-and-by,  He  draws  nigh  and  sees  the  city,  He  weeps 
over  it,  because  its  citizens  had  let  pass  a  glorious  opportr.nity. 
Even  at  the  very  end,  He  appears  to  have  imagined  that  it  might 
still  be  possible  for  His  Father  to  spare  Him  the  bitter  cup ;  and 
this  prayer  of  His  in  Gethsemane  clashes  somewhat  with  His 
clear  forecast  of  His  death  made  six  months  before.  But  while 
in  the  development  of  a  drama,  the  process  has  a  beginning,  a 
middle,  and  an  end,  and  the  progress  is  always  clearly  seen  from 


280  The  Rejected  King 

stage  to  stage,  the  development  of  a  soul's  actual  history  is 
marked  by  many  irregularities  of  movement,  subtleties  and  ap- 
parent contradictions;  for  life  is  larger  than  logic,  and  often 
presents  phases  that  are  hard  to  reconcile.  Hence  it  is  not 
improbable  that  at  some  place  near  Ca^sarea  Philippi,  and  at  a  time 
separated  but  a  little  from  the  moment  of  Peter's  Confession, 
Jesus  gave  a  clear  and  precise  statement  that  He  should  suffer 
and  die  a  violent  death.  This  prediction  will  afford  some  readers 
a  decisive  proof  of  His  possession  of  supernatural  knowledge; 
although,  when  we  recall  the  struggles  and  conflicts  Jesus  had 
passed  through,  and  if  we  believe  that  Caiaphas  had  already  given 
his  diabolic  counsel  that  one  should  die  for  the  nation,  we  find  it 
not  unnatural  that  Jesus  should  have  foreseen  the  violent  nature 
of  His  approaching  death  and  the  real  authors  of  it — "  the  elders, 
and  the  high-priests  and  the  scribes."  What  intensity  of  bitter- 
ness must  have  been  added  to  our  Lord's  sense  of  failure 
by  the  fore-knowledge  that  He  would  be  murdered  by  the  legiti- 
mate representatives  of  the  whole  Jewish  nation ! 

3.  St.  Mark  makes  it  plain  that  this  announcement  of  His 
approaching  Passion  was  uttered,  not  once  only,  but  again  and 
again,  so  that  His  disciples  should  cherish  no  lingering  doubts. 
He  spoke  of  His  death  as  necessary :  "  The  Son  of  Man  must 
(Set)  suffer  much,  and  be  rejected  and  be  killed,  and  after 
three  days  rise  again."  Was  this  necessity  an  external  inevitable- 
ness  or  a  supernatural  compulsion?  Theologians  are  tempted  to 
read  a  doctrinal  significance  into  the  word  "  must  " ;  for  ourselves, 
it  implies  the  moral  compulsion  Jesus  realized  in  His  own  soul 
to  be  faithful  unto  the  end.  He  felt  that  He  must  go  forward 
even  unto  death,  not  as  an  obstinate  fanatic,  but  as  one  who  was 
determined  to  obey  His  Heavenly  Father,  The  necessity  lay 
primarily  in  God's  Will,  and  secondarily  in  the  contradiction  and 
antagonism  to  that  Will  offered  by  sinful  men.  It  is  of  highest 
importance  to  observe  the  natural  and  close  connection  between 
the  disciple's  confession  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ  of  God,  and 
this  declaration  that  as  Messiah  He  must  suffer  and  die  at  the 
hands  of  the  national  leaders  of  Israel.  Simon  was  shocked 
by  what  seemed  to  him  a  grievous  mood  of  pessimism,  and 
taking  hold  of  Jesus  he  began  to  chide  Him,  saying :  "  God  for- 
bid! this  never  shall  befall  Thee!"  But  the  impetuous  remon- 
strance is  checked  by  a  stern  and  terrible  censure : 


First  Announcement  of  the  Passion  281 

"  Get  behind  Me,  Satan !    Thou  art  a  hindrance  to  Me  ! 
Thy  mind  is  not  on  the  affairs  of  God,  but  on  the  affairs  of  men ! " 

Simon's  headlong  words  stirred  a  tumult  in  the  breast  of  the 
Son  of  Man,  and  tempted  Him  over  again  to  choose  an  easier 
way  than  that  of  the  Cross:  hence  the  startling  and  vehement 
rebuke,  which  seems  to  us  scarce  merited  by  the  impetuous, 
errant  disciple.  At  the  same  time  the  condemnation  was  intended 
!not  merely  for  this  one  man,  but  for  all  who  imagined  that  the 
[Messiah  could  not  fail  and  suffer  and  die;  and  as  Jesus  uttered 
it,  He  turned  and  looked  upon  all  the  company.  The  unrivalled 
supremacy  of  Jesus  makes  us  diffident  in  speaking  of  the  struggles 
He  passed  through ;  and  yet  the  Gospels  show  clearly  that  He  had 
to  fight  and  agonize  with  temptations  until  the  eve  of  His  Cruci- 
fixion. He  had  to  deal  not  only  with  the  hostility  of  the  rulers 
and  Pharisees,  but  the  still  more  difficult  solicitations  of  His 
own  friends.  Evidently  the  ardent  dissuasions  of  worldly- 
minded  disciples  made  it  harder  for  Jesus  to  refuse  the  allure- 
ments of  a  low  and  material  Messianism. 

4.  Wherefore  ought  Messiah  to  suffer  and  die?  Notwith- 
standing His  swift  censure  of  Simon's  remonstrance,  Jesus  Him- 
self had  to  find  some  answer  to  this  inquiry.  The  full  meaning 
of  this  sacrifice  was  probably  unfolded  only  in  a  gradual  manner 
as  He  stepped  forward  to  meet  the  Cross.  The  first  clear  fact 
about  this  moral  necessity  was  found  in  the  universal  law  of 
sacrifice  that  conditions  every  advance  in  the  higher  history  of 
man.  St.  Mark  states  ^  that  Jesus  called  the  multitude  and  began 
to  inculcate  this  principle  upon  them ;  but  this  seems  like  a  con- 
fusion of  the  original  scene,  as  Jesus  at  this  time  was  making  a 
private  journey,  and  devoting  Himself  especially  to  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  Twelve.  The  logion  itself  carries  conviction  of  its 
authenticity:  "If  any  man  is  minded  {^e\Bi)  to  come  after  Me, 
let  him  disown  \nmst\i{a7rapvr)ffdffBGi)  fart»rdv)and  let  him  take 
up  his  cross  and  follow  Me.  For  whoever  is  minded  to  save  his 
life  shall  lose  it;  but  whoever  shall  lose  his  life  for  My  sake 
and  the  Gospel's  shall  save  it.  For  what  profit  is  it  for  a  man  to 
gain  the  whole  world  and  forfeit  his  life?  For  what  could  a 
man  give  in  exchange  for  his  life?  For  whoever  is  ashamed  of 
Me  and  My  words  in  this  adulterous  and  sinful  generation,  of 
^  Mark  viii.  34-38. 


282  The  Rejected  King 

him  also  shall  the  Son  of  Man  be  ashamed  when  He  comes  in 
His  Father's  Glory  with  the  holy  angels."  And  He  said  to 
them,  "  Truly  I  say  to  you,  that  there  are  some  of  those  standing 
here  who  shall  not  taste  death  until  they  see  the  coming  of  God's 
reign  in  power."  With  characteristic  leniency  toward  the  dis- 
ciples, St.  Luke  omits  the  Lord's  censure  of  Simon,  and,  by  in- 
troducing the  word  "  daily,"  makes  the  cross-bearing  refer  to  the 
common  experiences  of  ethical  life.  But  whatever  the  exact 
phraseology  may  have  been,  it  is  evident  that  Jesus  treats  His 
passion  and  death  as  a  supreme  instance  of  a  universal  moral 
law ;  He  died  to  live.  Only  by  suppressing  the  selfish  and  lower 
impulses  can  man  gain  advance  in  his  nobler  and  higher  nature. 
There  is  an  infinite  value  in  the  soul  which  makes  a  struggle 
against  the  lower  nature  a  moral  obligation.  The  pagan  ideal 
of  self-culture  does  not  carry  life  to  such  a  height  as  Christ's 
law  of  self-sacrifice.  Then,  too,  sorrow  enters  into  every  life  as 
a  Divine  discipline,  and  in  following  Jesus  this  discipline  is  not 
relaxed;  it  is  intensified.  The  Master's  repugnance  to  self-in- 
dulgence, however,  never  led  Him  into  a  doctrine  of  asceticism. 
In  following  Him,  men  pursue  no  artificial  quest  for  suffering; 
but  crises  will  come  to  them  when  the  pain  to  be  endured  shall 
be  as  that  borne  by  a  man  who  carries  the  cross  by  which  he 
is  to  die  a  death  of  fearful  shame.  Besides  the  inward  struggle 
to  be  faithful  to  God's  will,  Christ's  disciples  would  suflfer 
antagonism  from  the  world.  There  is  ever  a  conflict  going  on 
between  the  spirit  of  Truth  and  the  spirit  of  the  world;  reason 
will  clash  with  tradition,  spirituality  of  aim  with  men's  self- 
glorification  ;  and  in  this  strife  the  followers  of  Jesus  must  evince 
a  moral  heroism  that  will  not  shrink  even  from  martyrdom. 
Thus  did  Jesus  associate  His  sufferings  and  death  with  the 
experiences  shared  by  His  disciples,  and  as  the  patient  Servant 
of  God  He  interpreted  all  these  things  as  processes  whereby  God 
is  cleansing  and  elevating  the  lives  of  men. 

5.  But,  even  in  this  coordination  of  Christ's  sufferings  with 
the  heroic  sacrifices  made  by  His  followers,  we  come  upon  a 
feature  which  differentiates  Him  from  all  others ;  for  their 
trouble  and  cross-bearing  are  due  to  their  resolution  to  come 
after  Him.  Should  the  phrase  "  for  My  sake  "  be  eliminated  from 
this  passage,  the  idea  it  expresses  occurs  too  habitually  in  Christ's 
teaching  for  us  not  to  see  in   it  a   supreme  motive   for  self- 


First  Announcement  of  the  Passion         283 

sacrifice  in  the  disciples'  attachment  to  His  person.  Confession 
of  His  Messiahship  will  inevitably  lead  them  to  pain,  struggle 
and  death;  but  this  does  not  prevent  Jesus  from  claiming  this 
confession.  He  claims  more  than  any  other ;  He  speaks  not  only 
as  prophet  and  martyr,  but  as  Messiah  and  Lord.  He  calls  men 
to  renounce  mere  earthly  felicity  and  success,  in  order  that  they 
may  follow  Him,  although  obedience  to  His  call  would  bring 
perpetual  cross-bearing.  The  character  of  His  Person  gives  a 
preeminent  value  to  His  death.  He  is  the  author  and  finisher 
of  our  faith.  If  these  words  were  spoken  in  the  hearing  of  the 
crowd,  none  of  them  would  follow  Him  farther  under  the  de- 
lusion of  gaining  temporal  profit.  There  are  other  features  in 
His  voluntary  endurance  of  pain  and  death  which  will,  however, 
disclose  themselves  to  us  as  we  trace  the  farther  progress  of 
His  Ministry. 

6.  Connected  with  this  first  announcement  of  His  Passion  is 
the  exultant  certitude  of  His  Resurrection.  It  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  many  should  surmise  that  this  triumphant 
anticipation  was  created  and  interpolated  after  the  faith  in  His 
Resurrection  had  possessed  the  Christian  Church.  However, 
these  words  are  apparently  as  authentic  as  the  prediction  of  His 
death;  and  if  we  credit  the  one  it  is  questionable  if  we  have  any 
right  to  reject  the  other.  For  myself,  I  confess  if  the  Lord  did 
rise  from  the  dead,  it  is  no  difficult  thing  to  believe  that  He  fore- 
saw His  Resurrection,  Jesus  was  bound  to  ask,  if  death  was 
inevitable,  what  then  would  become  of  Himself,  and  what  in- 
fluence would  His  death  ultimately  wield  for  men.  It  seems  plain 
enough  that  Jesus  anticipated  a  final  triumph;  and  this  it  was 
that  deceived  the  disciples.  There  are  two  other  difficulties  which 
meet  us  as  we  consider  this  matter :  Would  not  the  clear  prevision 
of  His  Resurrection  rob  suffering  of  all  its  bitterness  ?  Our  only 
answer  is,  Yes,  indeed,  were  the  suffering  only  physical ;  but  we 
find  in  the  Passion  of  Christ  a  spiritual  anguish  which  is  un- 
paralleled, and  therefore  inscrutable  to  our  understanding.  But 
if  Jesus  thus  so  clearly  foretold  His  Resurrection  on  the  third 
day,  how  is  it  that  the  prediction  occurred  to  no  one  of  the  dis- 
ciples at  the  time  of  His  death?  So  far  as  can  now  be  known, 
they  were  so  entirely  obsessed  by  dreams  of  His  world-triumph 
as  the  Jewish  Messiah,  that  His  anticipations  of  death  and  resur- 
rection after  Simon's  first  horror  must  have  been  treated  as 


284  The  Rejected  King 

metaphors,  or  vague  figures  of  speech,  whose  meaning  they  could 
only  dimly  guess  at.  While  we  feel  all  the  force  of  these 
natural  difficulties,  and  wonder  how  the  evangelists  failed  to 
perceive  the  objections  that  were  bound  to  arise,  it  is  our  belief 
that  Jesus  actually  saw  the  light  beyond  the  tomb,  and  spoke  of 
His  Resurrection  and  apocalyptic  glory. 


BOOK  VI 
SELF-DEDICATION  UNTO  DEATH 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  TRANSFIGURATION 

I.  The  momentous  confession  of  Simon  at  Caesarea  Philippi, 
together  with  the  glorification  of  Jesus  on  the  Mount,  constitutes 
one  of  the  watersheds  of  His  Ministry ;  and  from  this  elevation 
the  mind  glances  forward  to  the  self-sacrifice  of  the  Cross.  But 
since  criticism  must  precede  all  our  attempts  to  reconstruct  the 
broken  image  of  Christ's  Ministry,  it  may  be  at  once  acknowledged 
that  the  exceptional  character  of  this  incident  of  the  Transfigura- 
tion has  necessarily  provoked  considerable  scepticism  about  its 
historicity;  and  not  a  few  Christian  scholars  have  sought  refuge 
in  the  notion  that  it  is  a  piece  of  imaginative  symbolism.  Once 
again  Buddhist  literature  affords  a  parallel  with  the  Gospel  story ; 
just  as  Shakyamuni  passed  through  his  temptation  under  the 
Bodhi-tree  without  being  overawed  or  injured  by  the  fierce  hatred 
of  the  evil  spirits,  so  he  is  also  said  to  have  passed  through  a 
transfiguration  similar  to  that  of  Jesus.  "  And  the  Tathagata's 
body  appeared  shining  like  a  flame,  and  he  was  beautiful  above 
all  expression.  .  .  .  The  Blessed  One  said,  There  are  two 
occasions  on  which  a  Tathagata's  appearance  becomes  clear  and 
exceeding  bright:  In  the  night,  Ananda,  in  which  a  Tathagata 
('  Perfect  One ')  attains  to  the  supreme  and  perfect  insight,  and 
in  the  night  in  which  he  passes  finally  away  in  that  utter  passing 
away  which  leaves  nothing  whatever  of  his  earthly  existence  to 
remain."  ^  This  parallel  in  the  story  of  Gautama  has  shaken  the 
faith  of  many  in  the  New  Testament  incident;  but  the  late 
Prof.  F.  Max  Miiller  pointed  out  that  such  duplications  might 
just  as  reasonably  be  treated  as  corroborations  of  Christianity: 
"  If  I  do  find  in  certain  Buddhist  works  doctrines  identically  the 
same  as  in  Christianity,  so  far  from  being  frightened,  I  feel 
delighted;  for  surely  truth  is  not  the  less  true  because  it  is  be- 
lieved by  the  majority  of  the  human  race."     Gautama  was  one 

*  "  The  Sacred  Books  of  the  East " :   The  Mahaparinibbanasuttanta,  iv. 
47,-52 ;  The  Book  of  the  Great  Decease,  vol.  xi. 

287 


288  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

of  the  unconscious  prophets  of  the  Gospel;  and  his  life  and 
teaching,  both  in  form  and  substance,  in  spite  of  the  radical 
defect  of  all  Buddhism,  was  a  veritable  foreshadowing  of  the 
Divine  Ideal.^  The  Story  of  the  Transfiguration  must  be  tested, 
as  the  records  of  other  miracles,  by  the  laws  of  historical  evi- 
dence, and  the  supreme  presumption  for  belief  will  be  found  in  its 
inherent  harmony  with  our  general  impression  of  Jesus.  Like 
Simmias,  we  feel  all  the  difficulties,  but  we  dare  not  allow  these 
to  prevent  us  from  making  full  inquiry  into  all  the  evidences 
accessible.  "  I  feel  myself  (and  I  daresay  that  you  have  the 
same  feeling)  how  hard,  or  rather  impossible,  is  the  attainment 
of  any  certainty  about  questions  such  as  these  in  the  present 
life.  And  yet  I  should  deem  him  a  coward  who  did  not  prove 
what  is  said  about  them  to  the  uttermost,  or  whose  heart  failed 
him  before  he  had  examined  them  on  every  side.  For  he  should 
persevere  until  he  has  achieved  one  of  two  things :  either  he 
should  discover  or  be  taught  the  truth  about  them ;  or,  if  this 
be  impossible,  I  would  have  him  take  the  best  and  most  irref- 
ragable of  human  theories,  and  let  this  be  the  raft  upon  which 
he  sails  through  life — not  without  risk,  as  I  admit,  if  he  cannot 
find  some  word  of  God  which  will  more  surely  and  safely  carry 
him."  ^  The  Divine  Word  which  shall  prove  our  guide  amid  the 
perils  of  the  historical  investigation  of  the  Gospels  is,  as  we  have 
already  proved,  the  actual  impression  made  upon  the  mind  by 
Jesus  in  all  that  we  certainly  know  of  Him. 

2.  Some  rationalists  of  a  by-gone  day,  sensitive  to  the  cumula- 
tive presumptions  of  truth  in  the  threefold  repetition  of  the 
Transfiguration  narrative,^  made  a  rather  bizarre  suggestion 
that  the  story  arose  from  a  meeting  between  Jesus  and  two  white- 
robed  Essene  friends  on  a  mountain  at  night.  Subsequent  criti- 
cism connected  the  scene  with  the  oracle  of  the  coming  of  a 
prophet  "  like  unto  Moses,"  making  out  that  in  this  association 
Jesus  would  be  mythically  assimilated  to  his  great  forerunner 

*  "  I  must  confess  that  I  was  startled  also  when  I  read  for  the  first 
time  that  at  the  incarnation  of  Buddha,  '  a  great  light  appeared,  the  blind 
received  their  sight,  the  deaf  heard  a  noise,  the  dumb  spake  one  with  an- 
other, the  crooked  became  straight,  the  lame  walked,'  etc.  But  on  more 
careful  consideration,  I  soon  found  that  this  phrase,  as  it  occurs  in  Bud- 
dhism and  Christianity,  had  its  independent  antecedents  in  the  tradition 
both  of  Judaea  and  of  India."    Max  Miiller,  Physical  Religion,  p.  392. 

^Phado,  85,  Jowett's  trans. 

8  Mark  ix.  2-13;  Matt.  xvii.  1-13;  Luke  ix.  28-36. 


The  Transfiguration  289 

by  becoming  the  subject  of  a  glorious  illumination.  Even  ortho- 
dox divines  have  inferred  from  St.  Luke's  mention  of  the  dis- 
ciples being  heavy  with  sleep,  that  the  scene  must  have  been 
"  visionary."  God  might  use  a  dream  of  the  three  disciples  as  a 
medium  of  revelation,  just  as  in  the  dim  dawn  of  Israel's  history 
Jacob  had  been  awakened  to  the  Divine  mystery  by  a  dream. 
Should  this  dream-theory  gain  a  wide  acceptance,  it  would  be 
inferred  that  since  one  identical  vision  filled  the  minds  of  the 
disciples,  Jesus  may  have  wielded  a  hypnotic  influence  and  sugges- 
tion over  them,  the  bright  visitants  from  the  celestial  world  being 
but  the  visualized  forms  of  Christ's  own  thoughts.  Yet  it  may 
be  that,  after  long  and  careful  examination  of  all  the  criticisms 
and  hypotheses,  the  mind  will  swing  back  to  the  belief  that, 
however  inexplicable  the  incident,  it  really  occurred  as  described 
in  the  Gospels,  One  strong  presumption  against  its  historicity 
is  the  omission  of  this  narrative  from  the  Fourth  Gospel.  This 
story  would  have  given  some  support  to  Abbe  Loisy's  unproved 
hypothesis,  that  "  the  Johannine  Christ  is  presented  as  a  trans- 
cendent Being,  who  is  not  of  this  earth,  and  who  seems  to  speak 
and  act  only  to  satisfy  the  terms  of  His  definition,  to  prove  that 
He  is  God  and  one  with  God."  ^  There  may  be  an  allusion,  how- 
ever, to  this  incident  in  the  assurance  which  underlies  the  whole 
Gospel,  "  And  we  beheld  His  majesty,  majesty  such  as  the  only  Son 
has  from  the  Father  full  of  grace  and  truth."  Moreover,  it  is  not 
incredible  that  memories  of  this  glory  blended  in  later  years  with 
the  Patmos  visions  of  St.  John.  Our  uncertainty  concerning  the 
real  authorship  of  the  Second  Epistle  of  St.  Peter  prevents  us 
from  laying  much  stress  upon  the  testimony  found  in  it  of  the 
Transfiguration;  although,  if  we  accept  Professor  Ramsay's 
suggestion  ^  that  the  author  was  a  pupil  of  Peter's,  who  repro- 
duced his  master's  teaching  in  new  and  later  circumstances,  the 
definite  allusion  to  the  glorification  of  Jesus  acquires  great  weight 
as  historical  evidence.  The  self-effacing  author  writes,  "  We 
were  admitted  to  the  spectacle  of  His  majesty.  For  He  received 
from  God  the  Father  honour  and  glory,  when  there  came  sujh  a 
voice  to  Him  from  the  excellent  glory,  This  is  My  Beloved  Son,  in 
whom  I  am  well-pleased :  and  this  voice  we  heard  out  of  heaven, 
when  we  were  with  Him  in  the  holy  mount."  ^    The  force  of  this 

'  Autour  d'un  petit  livre,  pp.  90,  91.    Quoted  by  Rev.  Vincent  McNabb, 
O.  P.,  Expos.  Times,  January,  1907. 
*  The  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  pp.  492,  493.        *  II  Peter  i.  i6-i8. 


290  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

testimony  is  heightened  in  that  it  follows  the  well-known  pro- 
testation that  believers  did  not  follow  cleverly  devised  myths. 
Still,  those  who  are  compelled  to  look  upon  the  story  as  a  gracious 
legend,  alike  with  those  who  treat  it  as  historical,  may  find  in 
it  great  lessons  and  spiritual  meanings,  although  they  lose  its 
significance  for  the  Mind  of  Jesus  Himself. 

3.  In  adopting  the  position  that  the  account  of  the  Trans- 
figuration is  historically  trustworthy,  we  neither  dismiss  the 
difficulties  belonging  to  it  nor  escape  the  obligation  of  oflfering 
some  interpretation  either  as  a  natural  or  as  a  preternatural 
occurrence.  We  cannot  lift  it  bodily  beyond  the  range  of  his- 
torical criticism  by  merely  terming  it  an  idealization  of  some 
natural  phenomenon;  it  has  to  be  judged  according  to  the  canons 
of  all  literary  and  historical  compositions.  It  is  quite  true  that 
the  first  reporters  of  this  scene  were  without  the  scientific  train- 
ing which  would  be  demanded  in  modern  literature ;  and  there  can 
be  little  question  that  had  a  Gibbon  or  a  Strauss  related  the 
incident,  it  would  have  taken  a  different  form.  And  yet  the 
differences  which  would  mark  a  twentieth-century  account  might 
not  result  altogether  from  increased  intellectual  acumen,  but  in 
part  they  would  spring  from  changed  presuppositions.  There  is 
strong  probability  that  the  first  oral  testimony  of  the  Transfigura- 
tion came  from  the  three  who  are  said  to  have  participated  in 
it;  and  whatever  may  have  been  their  failings  as  witnesses, 
Professor  Paul  Wernle's  words  are  applicable  to  them  at  this 
point  as  much  as  at  any  other :  "  The  apostles  were  animated  by 
a  lofty  self-consciousness.  They  felt  themselves  to  be  the  repre- 
sentatives of  Jesus.  They  were  continuing  His  work ;  as  am- 
bassadors for  Christ  they  were  ambassadors  for  God."  ^  That 
this  sense  of  solemn  responsibility  was  transmitted  to  the  evan- 
gelists is  shown  by  the  frank,  earnest  preface  to  the  Third 
Gospel  with  its  statement  of  the  writer's  method  and  aim.  Some- 
times the  prohibition  given  to  the  three  disciples  against  any  pre- 
mature communication  of  this  marvellous  incident  until  Jesus 
had  died  and  risen  again  is  treated  as  though  it  meant  that  they 
never  gave  any  authoritative  account  of  it.  But  if,  as  suggested, 
the  story  be  fictitious,  in  what  school  did  the  artists  learn  their 
sobriety  and  restraint  which  give  so  much  of  the  air  of  matter- 
of-factness  to  this  invention?  What  possible  motive  could  there 
^Beginnings  of  Christianity  (Eng.  trans.),  vol.  i.,  p.  119. 


The  Transfiguration  291 

be  for  fabrication  and  for  a  prohibition  which  could  have  no 
appHcation  whatever?  It  is  easier  to  accept  the  mystery  than 
to  repudiate  its  historicity. 

4.  Whether  the  phenomena  of  the  Transfiguration  were 
objectively  real  or  of  the  nature  of  a  vision,  must  be  decided 
on  the  grounds  of  internal  evidence,  although  we  strenuously 
resist  any  suggestion  that  the  term  "  vision  "  connotes  unreality. 
Analysis  of  the  most  ordinary  sensuous  perception  results  in  a 
discovery  of  factors  and  processes  which  are  as  subjective  as  the 
play  of  faculty  implied  in  describing  the  phenomena  of  spiritual 
vision.  It  is  no  easy  task  to  draw  a  line  of  demarcation  between 
sensuous  and  spiritual  experience ;  and  any  clear-cut  separation 
of  subjective  and  objective  factors  in  the  mind's  apprehension  of 
phenomena  is  forbidden  by  enlightened  psychology.  There  seem 
to  be  realms  of  consciousness  where  the  familiar  distinctions  be- 
tween matter  and  spirit  fade  away ;  where  it  appears  that  a 
kindling  and  fusion  of  sensuous  and  spiritual  activities  take  place. 
Thus,  for  example,  in  the  conversion  of  Saul  of  Tarsus  it  must 
ever  remain  a  controvertible  point  whether  the  vision  should  be 
described  as  subjective  or  objective;  still,  no  such  ambiguity 
affects  the  explicit  affirmation  of  St.  Paul :  "  Last  of  all,  as  unto 
one  born  out  of  due  time,  He  appeared  to  me  also."  The  eye 
never  sees  what  the  mind  is  unprepared  for.  It  may  be  that  the 
range  of  vision,  even  of  sensuous  perception,  is  marvellously 
increased  by  the  activity  of  faith.  The  three  disciples  had  passed 
through  a  period  of  preparation,  and  the  vision  of  His  glory 
came  only  after  they  had  confessed  their  faith  that  Jesus  was 
the  Messiah.  The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  at  times 
it  lifts  the  veil,  and  we  become  conscious  of  a  real,  personal, 
Divine  presence,  and  the  mind  is  conscious  of  enlarged  spiritual 
capacity.  To  change  the  figure,  the  tides  of  the  great  ocean 
of  Divine  life  in  which  we  live  sweep  into  the  little  creeks  of 
human  personality,  and  if  our  souls  be  not  drugged  with  sensual- 
ism we  awaken  to  glorious  and  inspiring  vision.  If,  then,  we 
give  provisional  acceptance  of  the  term  "  vision,"  we  do  not  imply 
the  operation  of  hysteria  or  of  hallucination ;  nor  do  we  suppose 
that  the  objective  reality  was  absent  in  the  Transfiguration  of 
our  Lord. 

5.  Passing  from  introductory  discussions  concerning  the  man- 
ner of  approaching  such  a  narrative  as  this,  we  have  next  to  trace 


292  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

the  definite  steps  in  the  sublime  experience  of  Jesus  which  culmi- 
nated in  His  glorification.  The  first  two  evangelists  state  that 
it  was  six  days  after  the  conversation  of  Jesus  near  Caesarea 
Philippi  concerning  the  Messiah's  suflferings  ;  but  the  third  affirms 
eight  days — perhaps  six  nights  and  two  additional  days; — and 
this  diflference  suggests  that  St.  Luke  may  have  had  access  to 
some  other  source  than  that  found  in  St.  Mark's  gospel.  Jesus 
took  Peter,  James  and  John  up  to  a  mountain  "  apart  alone  " ; 
these  three  men  constituted  the  inner  circle  of  the  disciple-band 
by  reason  of  their  special  aptitudes  and  responsiveness  to  Christ's 
disclosures.  The  Master  acted  in  accordance  with  the  principle 
of  Divine  election,  choosing  men  endowed  with  certain  qualities 
and  gifts  that  they  might  mediate  the  revelation  for  others. 
And  just  as  Confucius  foresaw  the  probable  fate  of  Tsze-Lu  (the 
Simon  of  his  disciples),  so  Jesus  may  have  anticipated  the 
courses  of  service  and  of  martyrdom  which  would  open  for 
these  three  men.  While  He  followed  the  inward  guidance  of 
the  Spirit's  voice.  He  was  also  yielding  to  His  natural  desire  for 
human  sympathy.  For  a  long  time  He  had  been  seeking  to  train 
His  disciples  for  a  more  advanced  reception  of  spiritual  truth, 
and  the  success  He  had  attained  in  this  brought  Him  nearer  the 
goal  of  His  Ministry.  The  Transfiguration  marks  a  crisis  in 
His  own  inward  history ;  it  had  a  greater  meaning  and  value  for 
Himself  than  it  could  possibly  have  for  the  disciples.  In  this 
fact  lies  the  secret  of  the  difficulty  all  expositors  have  realized 
in  dealing  with  this  incident ;  they  have  felt  its  intrinsic  grandeur, 
and  yet  have  garnered  but  a  slender  sheaf  of  spiritual  lessons  in 
their  treatment  of  it.  The  truth  is,  surely,  that  the  Transfigura- 
tion was  designed  for  the  preparation  of  Jesus  Himself,  and  only 
secondarily  for  a  revelation  to  the  disciples.  The  transaction 
between  the  Heavenly  Father  and  the  Son  must  remain  mysteri- 
ous to  us,  since  we  fall  short  of  the  standard  of  manhood  shown 
in  Christ;  for  all  who  desire  to  penetrate  its  secret  there  must 
be  asked  "  a  spirit  of  wisdom  and  revelation  in  the  knowledge 
of  Himself,  the  eyes  of  their  understanding  being  enlightened." 
The  context  of  the  incident  in  the  Gospels  is  very  significant ; 
the  story  lies  in  a  framework  of  passion-discourses;  it  is  pre- 
ceded and  followed  by  Christ's  own  personal  predictions  of 
suffering,  death  and  resurrection.  The  Transfiguration  was  the 
preparation  of  Christ  for  His  exodus.  On  that  mountain,  Jesus 
laid  Himself  like  another  Isaac  on  the  altar,  and  He  knew  that 


The  Transfiguration  293 

the  sacrifice  would  be  demanded.  The  very  glory  of  the  event 
contains  a  hint  of  the  struggle  which  had  been  going  on  in  His 
mind.  Jesus  was  no  impassive  hero  of  a  romantic  history;  He 
was  a  Soul  in  the  agony  of  a  momentous  spiritual  transaction. 
The  hour  had  come  when  He  was  to  make  a  voluntary  dedication 
of  Himself  for  a  sacrifice  than  which  history  knows  no  sublimer ; 
and  this  self-consecration  was  destined  to  be  met  by  a  distinct 
communication  of  Divine  approval.  St.  Luke  observes  that  it 
was  while  Jesus  was  praying  that  the  fashion  of  His  countenance 
was  changed.  Such  repeated  allusions  to  the  Master's  prayers 
in  the  Third  Gospel  look  like  someone's  authentic  recollections 
of  the  habitual  communion  of  Jesus  with  His  unseen  Father. 
Although  it  is  characteristic  of  St.  Luke  to  mention  this  ex- 
ercise, it  must  not  be  imagined  that  the  Evangelist  has  ven- 
tured a  pious  invention.  The  fragmentary  records  of  His  ejacu- 
latory  praises  and  petitions  reveal  Him  to  us  as  the  true  Son  of 
Man  conscious  of  His  dependence  upon  the  Divine  Will.  During 
His  wanderings  He  had  wrestled  with  the  dark  spectres  of  the 
mind,  seeking  for  the  guidance  of  His  Heavenly  Father.  That 
this  was  no  docetic  experience  is  manifest  in  the  vehemence  of 
His  censure  of  Simon's  unconscious  temptation  of  the  Christ. 
In  effect  the  disciple  had  said.  Why  not  live  and  triumph?  Al- 
though this  interrogation  was  clothed  in  all  the  sophistical  plausi- 
bilities of  self-love,  Jesus  had  stripped  away  its  disguises  and 
showed  it  to  be  a  Satanic  solicitation  to  renounce  the  Divine 
appointment,  devoting  Himself  whole-heartedly  to  a  complete 
obedience  to  the  Will  of  the  Heavenly  Father.  The  stress  and 
strain  of  a  prolonged  struggle  had  left  its  mark  upon  Him,  and 
His  retreat  to  the  Mountain  with  the  three  disciples  expressed 
His  craving  for  the  sympathy  both  of  friends  and  of  God.  He 
would  fain  have  had  the  men  watch  while  He  prayed.  He  had 
already  divined  that  His  Passion  was  necessary  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Divine  Reign  on  earth,  and  now  He  longed  to 
understand  the  Father's  purpose  in  this  predestined  doom. 

6.  Tradition  has  identified  the  scene  with  Mount  Tabor;  but 
it  is  possible  that  Jesus  had  led  His  disciples  to  some  height 
of  the  Hermon  range,  although  the  representation  of  a  crowd 
waiting  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  suggests  Galilee  as  the  more 
probable  place.  The  main  features  of  the  story,  however,  are 
quite  unaffected  by  uncertainty  concerning  the  locality.     As  if 


296  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

and  yielded  to  Him  the  keys  of  the  Word  of  God.  While  the 
glorious  light  was  radiating  from  His  face,  these  two  immortal 
spirits  conversed  with  Jesus  of  His  exodus,  which  He  was  about 
to  accomplish  in  Jerusalem.  This  stately  and  solemn  announce- 
ment of  their  theme  is  pregnant  with  the  consciousness  of  a 
Divine  predestination.^  Once  again  it  may  be  repeated,  the 
Passion  idea  dominates  the  Transfiguration ;  it  seems  as  if  the 
fuller  meaning  of  His  approaching  exodus  was  now  revealed 
to  Jesus  Himself,  and  looking  beyond  the  incident  of  death 
Jesus  knew  that  He  would  die  to  live  again  in  the  splendour  of 
a  permanent  Transfiguration.  It  is  at  least  open  to  conjecture 
that  at  this  time  Jesus  first  perceived  that  the  Sacrifice  He  had 
resolved  to  make  was  more  than  martyrdom;  that  it  was,  as 
St.  Paul  afterwards  declared,  a  propitiatory  death.  Just  as  at 
His  baptism  in  His  vicarious  confession  and  penitence,  Jesus  had 
received  a  "  Divine  investiture  "  for  His  preparatory  ministry,  now 
at  the  great  turning-point  of  His  life  the  Heavenly  Father  girded 
His  Son  afresh  for  fiercer  conflicts  and  greater  triumphs. 

8.  When  the  disciples  perceived  Moses  and  Elias  departing, 
Peter  exclaimed,  "Rabbi,  it  is  beautiful  {naXov)  to  be  here. 
Now  let  us  make  three  booths,  one  for  Thee  and  one  for  Moses 
and  one  for  Elijah."  St.  Luke  says  "  he  did  not  know  what  he 
was  saying  " ;  while  St.  Mark  describes  him  as  answering  blindly 
through  fear.  How  inherently  true  to  character,  and  indirectly 
an  evidence  of  veracity,  is  this  incidental  touch  in  this  narrative 
of  mystery !  It  was  not  the  first  or  last  time  that  Simon's  speech 
outstripped  his  understanding.  Was  he,  we  wonder,  crudely 
imagining  that  this  Mount  should  become  a  new  Sinai,  whence 
Jesus  should  issue  fresh  laws  for  the  Messianic  Kingdom?  But 
even  as  he  spoke,  a  luminous  cloud  overshadowed  them,  and  a 
voice  was  heard,  "  This  is  My  chosen  Son :  hear  Him."  The 
phrase  "  My  Chosen  "  was  redolent  with  memories  of  the  Servant 
of  Jehovah — the  prophet,  martyr  and  deliverer  predestined  to 
minister  universal  hope  for  humanity.^^  The  light-filled  cloud 
may  have  been  one  of  the  moving  mists  playing  on  Hermon's 
snow-capped  heights  and  shot  through  with  the  glory  of  Jesus; 
or  it  may  have  been,  as  some  imagine,  the  Shekinah-cloud  of  the 
Old  Covenant  appearing  again.  The  voice  may  have  been  as 
the  roll  of  thunder,  or  as  a  whisper  of  the  Spirit ;  to  the  hearers 
*Luke  ix.  30,  31.  *Isa.  xlii.  12. 


The  Transfiguration  297 

it  was  intelligible  as  a  preternatural  testimony  of  the  Sonship  of 
Jesus  and  of  the  approval  of  the  Heavenly  Father ;  its  reverbera- 
tions sounded  on  through  all  their  lives.  For  the  lonely  Jesus 
it  was  a  moment  of  ecstasy  and  glory;  although  rejected  by 
the  Jews,  the  dark  hour  was  illumined  by  this  foretaste  of  coming 
triumph  and  the  immediate  assurance  of  Divine  approval.  His 
humiliation  was  touched  with  exultancy ;  His  sorrow  was  trans- 
figured by  the  testimony  of  the  Father.  Through  the  coming 
months  of  darkness  and  trouble,  this  Divine  witness  of  His 
acceptance  could  never  be  forgotten;  by  it  He  would  be  encour- 
aged and  strengthened  for  the  Cross.  And  for  the  disciples  there 
had  rung  out  an  unmistakable  Divine  imperative;  to  the  Christ 
they  should  listen  and  offer  obedience.  They  were  affrighted 
and  fell  on  their  faces ;  but  Jesus  coming  to  them,  touched  them 
and  said,  "  Arise,  and  be  not  afraid  " ;  "  and  lifting  up  their 
eyes  they  saw  no  one  save  Jesus  only." 

9.  As  they  were  descending  the  Mountain  in  the  morning, 
Jesus  sealed  their  lips,  saying,  "  Tell  the  vision  to  no  man  until 
the  Son  of  Man  be  risen  from  the  dead."  Again  the  mysterious 
words  about  "  rising  from  the  dead  "  dashed  their  incipient  hopes 
and  vague  imaginings  to  the  ground ;  for  already  they  had  begun 
to  dream  of  conquests  and  not  of  the  Cross.  Upon  receiving 
this  prohibition  against  any  premature  divulgence  of  the  vision, 
they  discussed  among  themselves  the  grave  implications  of  the 
Master's  speech,  and  then  turned  to  ply  Him  with  questions  about 
His  Messiahship  and  the  predicted  advent  of  Elias.  Had  this 
been  a  fictitious  narrative,  surely  Jesus  would  have  been  made 
to  point  to  the  visitation  on  the  Mount  as  the  fulfilment  of 
Elijah's  anticipated  coming;  but,  instead  of  this,  the  oracle  is 
applied  to  John  the  Baptist.  "  Elias  indeed  cometh  first  and 
restoreth  all  things !  But  I  say  unto  you  Elias  is  already  come, 
and  they  did  not  recognize  him,  but  did  unto  him  whatever 
they  willed.  So  shall  the  Son  of  Man  also  suffer  from  them." 
These  words  show  that  the  Glory  of  the  Mount  had  not  dimmed 
the  Master's  foresight  of  His  coming  doom.  Herod's  murder 
of  John  showed  the  spirit  of  the  age ;  men  still  thirsted  for  the 
blood  of  God's  Servants.  In  His  baptism  Jesus  had  entered  into 
the  oneness  of  humanity,  and  had  taken  up  the  race-burden  of 
guilt ;  and  now  He  would  fain  share  with  His  brethren  the 
Father's   approval   of   the   Son  of   Man,   and    for  this   desired 


298  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

participation  of  men  in  His  own  filial  experience  He  dedicated 
Himself  even  unto  death.  And  the  hour  of  His  most  utter 
self-renunciation  and  of  His  mental  acceptance  of  the  Cross, 
was  the  culmination  of  the  Glory  of  His  Divine  Sonship.  In 
the  crisis  of  His  self-dedication  He  was  met  by  a  new  theophany, 
in  which  the  steps  of  His  Passion  were  lighted  up  with  a  full 
revelation  of  the  Father's  purpose,  and  as  He  felt  the  glow  and 
gladness  of  this  infusion  of  Divine  Grace  He  was  transformed 
in  the  ecstasy.  Thus  we  think  of  Him  on  the  dark  background 
of  history,  transfigured  by  His  holy  enthusiasm  for  righteousness, 
by  His  unfaltering  obedience  to  the  Will  of  the  Heavenly 
Father,  and  by  His  self-sacrificing  love  for  the  world. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  DISCIPLES  OF  THE  MESSIAH 

I.  Biography  leads  the  reader  through  scenes  fully  as  varied 
as  those  surveyed  by  travellers  in  Europe  and  Asia;  there  are 
heights  of  commanding  impressiveness  and  lowlands  with  alter- 
nate fertility  and  sterility;  we  pass  mountains  and  steppes,  great 
torrents  and  placid  streams.  Even  the  life  of  Jesus  is  character- 
ized by  alternations  such  as  these;  there  are  great  moments  and 
crises  followed  by  weeks  crowded  indeed  with  incidents,  but 
incidents  of  a  less  determinative  influence  in  shaping  the  course 
of  things.  Accepting  tentatively  our  proposed  chronology  of 
events,  we  have  the  impression  of  having  crossed  a  lofty  mountain- 
range;  from  the  Raising  of  Lazarus  to  the  Transfiguration  we 
have  passed  from  height  to  height;  the  events  have  been  all 
charged  with  passionate  living  and  tragic  consequences ;  and  Jesus 
has  appeared  to  us,  not  as  a  passive  dreamer,  but  as  a  mighty 
Actor  in  the  drama  of  history — spiritual  in  His  aims,  delivering 
His  soul  of  great  thoughts  and  noble  ethics,  but  also  wielding  a 
potent  dynamical  influence  within  the  circumscribed  limits  of  His 
Ministry.  Utterly  delusive  are  all  those  descriptions  of  Jesus  which 
give  the  impression  that  He  was  only  a  gentle,  poetic  visionary ; 
fuller  recognition  of  the  balanced  conception  of  His  life  presented 
in  the  Gospels  enables  us  to  perceive  that,  while  He  was  deeply 
sympathetic  and  could  weep  for  human  suffering,  He  was  also 
strenuously  revolutionary,  awing  men  by  the  terror  of  His  frown, 
and  hurling  the  thunderbolts  of  angry  scorn  at  all  hypocrisy  and 
inhumanity.  But  now  we  are  to  descend  from  the  heights  of 
crucial  and  climactic  experiences,  that  we  may  review  the  passage 
of  events  on  the  common  levels  of  Christ's  Ministry;  and  for 
this  purpose  we  shall  group  a  series  ^  of  related  incidento  which 
show  to  us  once  again  that  the  emphasis  of  His  teaching  fell 
upon  the  centrality  and  dominance  of  His  own  Person  Our  un- 
prejudiced study  of  the  Gospels  has  resulted  not  only  in  an  irre- 

*Matt.  viii.  19-22;  xvii.  2-xviii.  35;  xix.  13-30;  Mark  ix.  33-x.  31 ;  Luke 
ix.  46-48,  57-62;  xviii.  18-30. 

299 


300  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

sistible  return  from  the  extreme  negative  position  of  early  hostile 
criticism  to  a  belief  that  these  books  are  substantially  trustworthy, 
but  it  has  also  helped  to  focus  attention  upon  the  ultimate  mystery 
of  the  Person  they  describe.  Tremendous  as  may  be  the  im- 
portance of  the  ethical  teaching  of  Jesus,  still  the  one  un- 
surpassable thing  in  the  Gospels  is  the  historical  character  of  the 
Master  Himself.  Professor  H.  M.  Gwatkin  boldly  says,  "  The 
firmest  Christian  must  allow  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  added  noth- 
ing to  Micah's  summary  of  human  duty — except,  he  will  say, 
power  to  act  on  it."  ^  We  have  already  found  that  under  the 
influence  of  His  instruction  two  movements  of  thought  had  been 
followed  by  the  disciples:  gradually  they  had  been  forced  to  see 
that  He  was  not  a  Messiah  after  the  manner  of  popular  Jewish 
hopes ;  on  the  other  hand  they  had  been  slowly  convinced  that  all 
the  prophetic  hopes  of  the  Old  Testament  converged  upon  Him 
as  the  Spiritual  Messiah  of  the  whole  human  race. 

2.  It  is  a  tribute  to  the  triumph  of  His  personal  influence  that, 
while  Jesus  abnegated  all  political  functions  of  an  external  reign, 
He  yet  secured  the  loyal  adhesion  of  the  disciples  to  His  real 
Messiahship.  He  shattered  the  material  dream  of  His  nation  by 
accentuation  of  the  supreme  importance  of  the  ethical  and  in- 
ward life;  and  yet  He  claimed  the  national  title,  breathing  into 
it  a  universal  meaning.  This  being  clear,  it  remains  to  examine 
next  what  He  set  before  Himself  and  the  disciples  as  the  allotted 
task  of  the  Messiah.  Already  we  have  reviewed  His  repeated, 
solemn  declaration  that  it  was  necessary  for  Him  to  suffer  and  to 
be  killed  by  Israel's  legal  representatives ;  but  the  prediction  of 
His  own  Resurrection  and  His  grateful  acceptance  of  Simon's 
confession  that  He  was  no  other  than  the  Messiah,  force  us  to 
conclude  that  He  did  not  regard  death  as  the  end  either  of  His 
person  or  of  His  cause.  The  first  message  of  Jesus  had  con- 
cerned the  advent  of  the  Reign  of  God ;  in  this,  He  conceived, 
would  be  realized  the  purpose  of  the  Heavenly  Father.  He 
soon  found,  however,  that  the  Divine  prothesis  had  to  be  wrought 
out  amid  the  cross-currents  of  perverse  human  wills.  He  was 
so  keenly  disappointed  at  Jerusalem's  rejection  of  a  great  oppor- 
tunity for  spiritual  reconstruction,  and  openly  lamented  His 
failure  to  impress  the  city  by  His  Personality ;  we  cannot  but 
wonder  what  course  the  evolution  of  Redemption  would  have 
*  The  Knowledge  of  God,  vol.  ii.,  p.  43. 


The  Disciples  of  the  Messiah  801 

followed  had  the  Holy  City  received  Him  as  its  spiritual  king. 
But  the  tide  of  Divine  Purpose  could  not  be  driven  back  by 
the  opposition  of  men ;  it  was  bound  to  advance,  and  if  diverted 
from  its  original  channels  it  would  flow  in  wherever  it  might  and 
create  for  itself  new  currents  in  history.  Reflected  clearly  in  the 
Gospels  we  find  the  graduated  steps  of  Jesus  in  preparing  a  band 
of  disciples  who  should  form  a  new  Spiritual  fellowship,  and  He 
promised  to  commit  unto  them  the  keys  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven.  But  this  presentation  of  the  purpose  of  Jesus  has  been 
severely  criticized.  Some  writers  with  a  strong  naturalistic 
bias  have  made  out  that  it  was  impossible  that  Jesus  should 
speak  beforehand  of  His  Resurrection;  while  others,  without 
questioning  the  Church's  faith  in  our  Lord,  have  questioned  or 
denied  the  possibility  of  His  having  designed  any  establishment 
of  an  organized  society  of  His  followers.  Thus  the  Rev.  James 
H.  F.  Peile,  in  his  Bampton  Lectures,  says :  "  When  we  inquire 
whether  Jesus  contemplated  the  founding  of  what  we  mean  by  a 
Christian  Church,  we  must  honestly  admit  that  there  is  nothing 
to  prove  it  in  His  extant  discourses;  nor  are  we  called  upon  to 
believe  that  after  His  Resurrection  He  revealed,  to  His  apostles, 
in  discourses  which  have  not  been  handed  down  to  us,  the 
details  of  the  organization  by  which  the  Gospel  was  to  be  spread 
and  maintained  in  the  world.  He  appears  to  have  been  content 
with  the  Jewish  Church,  in  which  He  was  born,  as  a  frame- 
work for  Spiritual  Religion.  The  author  of  the  conception  of  the 
Church,  as  we  know  it,  was,  humanly  speaking,  not  Jesus  but 
Paul."  ^  This  cautiously  expressed  opinion  cannot  be  met  by  a 
categorical  denial,  since  so  much  can  be  said  in  support  of  it; 
we  can  only  meet  it  with  a  question  as  to  what  Jesus  designed 
His  disciples  to  be  and  to  do,  if  they  were  not  to  constitute  a 
new  fellowship.  After  leading  them  to  the  confession  of  His 
Spiritual  Messiahship  and  seeking  to  prepare  them  for  His  death, 
did  He  not  woo  their  allegiance  and  strive  to  ensure  their  con- 
tinuance as  disciples?  As  we  have  pointed  out  before,  a  close 
study  of  His  Ministry  discloses  far  more  of  plan  and  fore- 
sight than  some  imagine.  It  is  not  to  the  point  to  say  Jesus  did 
not  intend  a  politico-ecclesiastical  organization,  such  as  the 
Church  subsequently  became;  He  at  least  intended  that  His  dis- 
ciples should  begin  the  realization  of  God's  Kingdom,  and  for  this 
end  it  was  needful  that  they  should  constitute  a  spiritual  society. 
^  The  Reproach  of  the  Gospel,  1907,  p.  140. 


302  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

As  He  journeyed  from  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration  back  into 
Galilee,  it  was  this  aim  that  dominated  His  mind,  appearing  even 
in  incidents  which  tended  to  frustrate  His  efforts  to  breathe  His 
own  purpose  into  the  souls  of  His  disciples. 

3.  On  the  day  following  the  Transfiguration,  before  ever 
Jesus  could  rejoin  the  other  nine  disciples,  they  were  subjected 
to  a  test  which  humiliated  them  with  a  sense  of  impotence  and 
failure.  The  transition  from  the  apocalypse  of  mountain  glory 
to  an  exhibition  of  passionate  misery  in  the  valley  is  so  sudden 
that  we  are  not  sure  whether  the  juxtaposition  of  such  contrast- 
ing scenes  is  due  to  art  or  to  chronology.  In  the  Mission  of 
the  Twelve  the  evangelists  had  apparently  exercised  miraculous 
powers  of  healing  and  of  exorcism;  and  now,  when  they  were 
besought  to  restore  an  afflicted  boy  to  health,  they  were  unable 
to  do  so.  A  number  of  scribes  had  followed  Jesus  northward 
with  the  father  of  the  demoniac  boy,  and  when  they  witnessed 
the  ineffectualness  of  the  disciples'  faith  they  began  to  dispute 
about  the  authority  of  their  Master  HimseK.  Suddenly  Jesus 
was  seen  approaching,  and  whether  it  was  the  coincidence  of  His 
arrival  with  the  controversy  about  Him,  or  that  something  of  the 
majesty  of  His  Transfiguration  still  lingered  about  His  person, 
"  immediately  all  the  people  seeing  Him  were  utterly  amazed." 
The  poet  Virgil  noted  that  "  often  when  a  tumult  has  arisen,  and 
the  low  rabble  rages  in  excitement,  .  .  .  then  if  they,  perchance, 
see  a  man  dignified  by  piety  and  services,  they  are  silent,  and 
stand  with  ears  pricked  up  while  he  sways  their  souls  with  words 
and  soothes  their  passions."  ^  Jesus  spoke  an  enigmatic,  sad  re- 
buke: "  O  faithless  generation!  how  long  shall  I  be  with  you?"* 
He  was  still  intently  brooding  upon  His  approaching  exodus, 
and  wounded  by  the  faithlessness  alike  of  the  disciples  and  of  the 
crowd.  He  demanded  a  certain  spiritual  susceptibility  and  loyalty 
in  men  so  closely  connected  with  Him.  His  double-edged  rebuke 
cut  also  across  the  perversity  of  the  scribes,  who  in  their  material- 
ism sought  only  for  an  outward  sign.  The  father  of  the  boy 
alone  appears  to  be  thinking  of  the  sufferer,  and  with  a  touch  of 
pardonable  impatience  exclaims,  "  If  Thou  canst  do  anything,  pity 
and  help  us!"  As  to  the  phrase,  "if  Thou  canst,"  said  Jesus, 
"  all  things  are  possible  to  him  that  believeth."     With  pathetic 

'  The  JEneid,  bk.  i. 

*  Mark  ix.  19,  irpdc  i/idf,  in  relations  with  you. 


The  Disciples  of  the  Messiah  303 

entreaty  the  father  answered,  "  I  believe:  help  me  (even)  in  my 
unbelief."  Jesus  had  no  wish  to  begin  again  the  exciting  and 
ineffectual  scenes  of  His  healing  wonders,  but  His  compassion  was 
stirred,  and  seeing  the  increasing  crowds  running  toward  Him, 
He  hastened  to  speak  the  word  of  power  which  restored  the  boy. 
Once  again  the  Evangelist  represents  this  triumph  of  faith  as  the 
rebuke  of  the  unclean  spirit.  At  present  we  treat  the  demon- 
ology  of  New  Testament  diseases  as  but  a  part  of  the  frame- 
work of  the  Gospel  narratives ;  if  ever  we  are  able  again  to  accept 
the  hypothesis  of  "  possession  "  as  psychologically  true,  new  point 
and  definiteness  will  be  found  in  our  Lord's  conflict  with  the 
world  of  evil.  St.  Luke  remarks  upon  the  popular  astonishment 
at  this  demonstration  of  the  majesty  of  God.  The  enthusiasm 
for  Jesus  which  had  died  down  was  fanned  again  just  as  a 
smouldering  coal  bursts  into  flame  at  a  passing  breath  of 
wind. 

4.  Jesus  shrank  from  anything  like  a  renewal  of  popularity, 
and,  desiring  to  continue  His  private  instruction  of  the  Twelve, 
He  travelled  south  as  quietly  as  possible,  purposely  avoiding  the 
more  frequented  thoroughfares.  This  journey  served  again  to 
show  the  utter  disparity  between  the  anticipations  of  Jesus  and 
the  ambitions  of  His  disciples.  "  For  He  was  teaching  His 
disciples  and  saying  to  them  that  the  Son  of  Man  is  delivered  into 
men's  hands  and  they  shall  kill  Him,  and  when  He  is  killed,  after 
three  days  He  shall  rise  again."  Reading  in  their  faces  the 
gloomy  perplexity  occasioned  by  His  prediction,  Jesus  solemnly 
enjoined  His  disciples  to  "  lay  up  these  words  in  your  ears."  In 
each  repetition  of  this  "  word  of  doom,"  we  trace  a  graduated 
advance  in  the  revelation  of  His  Passion.  He  had  already  spoken 
of  its  necessity,  and  now  He  adds  the  fatal  affirmation  that  "  the 
Son  of  Man  is  delivered  into  men's  hands."  ^  Was  He  referring 
to  the  treachery  of  Judas  already  divined,  or  to  the  unfolding 
steps  of  His  Father's  purpose?  However  rigidly  historical  our 
examination  of  the  Ministry  of  Jesus,  it  seems  impossible  to  fore- 
close all  theological  interpretations  of  His  sacrifice  as  we  follow 
His  steps  to  the  Cross.  The  oppressive  sense  of  swift-coming 
doom  in  the  language  of  Jesus  corroborates  our  supposition  that 
the  rulers  had  made  their  plans  before  He  had  made  the  excur- 
sion to  the  north  of  Palestine.  The  utter  mystification  of  the 
*  Mark  ix.  31,  pres.  indie. 


304  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

disciples  is  reflected  in  the  Evangelist's  language :  "  they  under- 
stood not  this  saying,  and  it  was  something  veiled  from  them, 
insomuch  that  they  perceived  it  not ;  and  they  were  afraid  to  ask 
Him  about  this  saying."  ^  The  alienation  of  the  disciples  from 
their  Lord  must  be  a  real  reminiscence,  for  no  writer  would  ever 
dream  of  inventing  an  experience  which  seems  damaging  to  the 
claims  of  Jesus  and  injurious  to  the  reputation  of  the  apostles. 
We  touch  an  actual  memory  of  a  bewilderment  which  tended  to 
pass  into  antagonism  to  such  vaticinations  of  their  Rabbi.  It  is 
far  from  impossible,  also,  that  the  disciples  were  secretly  and 
treacherously  encouraged  by  the  Pharisees  to  fall  back  upon  the 
popular  belief  in  a  materialistic,  political  Messianism.  These  per- 
plexed men  thought  that  when  Jesus  openly  declared  Himself 
to  be  the  Christ  and  undertook  the  Messianic  role  of  "  the  resti- 
tution of  all  things,"  the  rulers  and  the  people  would  be  won  to 
espouse  His  cause,  and  all  His  dreary  fears  of  doom  would 
evaporate  as  mists  before  the  rising  sun.  Meanwhile  a  suspicion 
that  the  Master  was  the  victim  of  a  painful  hallucination  under- 
mined their  confidence;  "  they  were  afraid  to  ask  Him  about  this 
saying  " — afraid  to  provoke  Him  again  to  rebuke  them  as  He  had 
done  when  Simon  had  uttered  his  remonstrance.  They  walked 
apart  from  Him  and  talked  in  subdued  voices  of  the  future, 
encouraging  one  another  in  the  hope  that  a  brighter  day  would 
soon  come,  when  their  Master  would  shake  Himself  free  from 
His  gloom.  If  Jesus  had  wished  that  the  nine  disciples  should 
remain  in  ignorance  of  His  recent  Transfiguration — which  is  a 
matter  of  uncertainty — it  was  inevitable  that  broken  and  whis- 
pered hints  of  that  apocalypse  should  fall  from  the  favoured 
three;  but  while  they  kindled  afresh  the  hopes  of  ultimate  triumph, 
they  also  aroused  rivalries  in  hearts  whose  worldliness  seemed 
invincible.  Thus,  as  they  conversed,  the  natural  joy  of  comrade- 
ship gave  place  to  mutual  jealousies  and  fears  lest  justice  might 
not  be  done  to  them  in  the  future  restoration  of  the  Kingdom. 
Instead  of  meekness,  love  and  a  desire  to  prefer  one  another, 
these  old-time  disciples  were  as  keen  as  their  modern  successors 
upon  making  selfishness  the  supremely  efficient  factor;  they  still 
eagerly  sought  after  a  secular  gospel.  Their  attempts  at  re- 
straint at  times  broke  down,  and  the  whispered  bickerings  gave 
way  to  loud  and  angry  reproaches,  so  that  as  Jesus  looked  back 
at  them  He  perceived  their  quarrelsome  mood  and  felt  an  ac- 

*Mark  ix.  32. 


The  Disciples  of  the  Messiah  305 

centuation  of  their  estrangement  from  Himself.  He  saw,  with 
poignant  distress,  that  all  His  teaching  had  failed  to  effect  any 
radical  change  in  their  hearts;  still,  in  their  loyalty  to  their  mis- 
understood Lord,  He  found  a  pledge  that  they  would  even  yet 
become  ambassadors  for  God,  able  to  continue  the  work  He  had 
begun. 

5.  As  soon  as  they  reached  Capernaum,  however,  their 
thoughts  were  diverted  to  other  claims  and  problems  by  a  ques- 
tion put  by  some  officials  to  Simon  as  to  whether  Jesus  would 
pay  a  certain  tax.^  The  contrast  between  the  present  conditions  of 
social  and  political  life  and  those  which  existed  in  the  time  of 
Jesus  creates  a  little  difficulty  in  understanding  the  attitude  of 
the  Master  to  the  state.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  Jesus  was 
a  revolutionary,  a  democrat,  or  a  social  reformer;  but  such 
names,  while  they  express  a  part  of  the  truth,  convey  quite  a 
wrong  conception  of  the  role  that  Jesus  played  in  history.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  this  Syrian  Jew  possessed  no  political  power, 
and  He  discouraged  the  popular  Messianism  which  craved  for  it ; 
He  was  all  but  indifferent  to  the  external  framework  of  the 
state,  and  accepted  the  government  of  the  time,  both  Roman  and 
Jewish,  without  any  expressed  wish  to  overthrow  it.  On  the 
surface  of  it,  this  indifference  of  Jesus  to  the  state  appears  to 
Englishmen  a  radical  defect ;  but  upon  investigation,  we  discover 
that  any  other  attitude  on  the  part  of  Jesus  would  have  doomed 
His  movement  to  certain  failure.  He  gave  no  easily  applied 
rules  that  we  can  apply  to  our  modern  social  and  political  prob- 
lems ;  His  teaching  dealt  with  the  inmost  principles  and  motives 
of  all  human  conduct.  His  individualism  created  a  real  uni- 
versalism;  His  indifference  to  temporary  phases  of  government 
allowed  Him  to  be  the  abiding  Lord  of  history.  Jesus  imparted 
a  spirit  to  the  world  which  creates  an  insatiable  craving  for 
reform,  and  also  makes  possible  the  accomplishment  of  every 
projected  advance  in  civilization.  To  return  to  the  incident  at 
Capernaum,  we  perceive  that,  notwithstanding  an  exalted  self- 
consciousness  as  the  Messiah,  He  was  quite  willing  to  submit  to 
the  usual  demands  of  government.  It  may  have  been  the  capita- 
tion-tax which  Augustus  had  imposed  upon  the  Jews,  or  more 
probably  it  was  the  temple  didrachm.^    If  this  were  the  customary 

^  Matt.  xvii.  24-27. 

2  About  one  shilling  and  three  pence. 


306  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

time  for  collecting  the  temple-tax,  in  the  month  of  Adar  (Feb- 
ruary-March), then  Jesus  had  only  about  another  five  weeks  to 
live,  although  it  is  possible  that  the  Shclihim  were  demanding  the 
tax  left  unpaid  at  some  previous  time,  which  was  long  over-due. 
While  Jesus  used  the  occasion  for  teaching  His  disciples  sub- 
mission to  civic  and  religious  authorities,  He  paradoxically  used 
it  also  for  the  reiteration  of  His  personal  claim  to  be  the  Son  of 
God.  "  What  think  you,  Simon :  from  whom  do  the  kings  of 
the  earth  receive  tribute,  from  their  sons  or  from  strangers  ?  " 
"  From  strangers,"  replied  the  disciple.  "  Then  the  sons  at 
least  are  free,"  said  Jesus.  Still,  while  He  emphasizes  His  mys- 
terious superiority  to  the  temple.  He  claims  no  exemption  from 
the  tax,  but  directs  His  disciple  to  pay  it.  The  reputed  miracle 
of  catching  the  fish  with  a  stater  in  its  mouth  reads  like  a 
proverbial  saying,  taken  too  prosaically  by  a  later  generation. 
The  only  deduction  to  be  made  from  it  is  that  the  funds  of  Jesus 
were  exhausted,  and  that  Simon  had  to  resort  to  his  fisherman's 
net  in  order  to  meet  the  need.  The  incident  affords  a  touching 
illustration  of  the  poverty  of  Jesus,  and  reminds  us  that  through- 
out His  Ministry  He  was  dependent  on  the  benevolence  and  hos- 
pitality of  friends — of  good  women,  who  followed  Him,  and  of 
strangers.  Jesus  was  as  indifferent  to  money  as  He  was  to 
government;  wealth  to  Him  seemed  a  matter  of  unimportance, 
save  that  it  often  constituted  a  grave  moral  danger.  "  How  hardly 
shall  they  that  have  riches  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
Christ's  teaching  about  riches  shows  that  though  less  prevalent, 
perhaps,  than  today,  mammon-worship  was  even  then  a  powerful 
influence  in  human  relationships.  The  disciples,  although  for 
the  most  part  poor  men,  evinced  by  their  disputes  about  their 
rights  and  positions  in  the  Kingdom  of  the  Messiah  a  suscepti- 
bility to  the  glamour  of  wealth  and  power;  hence  it  may  be 
inferred  that  they  would  never  have  attributed  poverty  to  their 
Lord,  had  it  not  been  an  indisputable,  actual  characteristic  of 
His  Ministry.  And  this  note  of  poverty,  although  free  from  the 
features  of  degradation  which  accompany  it  in  our  times,  makes 
it  more  amazing  that  men  should  confess  belief  in  His  Messiah- 
ship.  What  a  tremendous  personal  power  Jesus  must  have 
wielded  over  the  minds  of  His  disciples,  in  order  to  revolutionize 
all  their  conventional  opinions  of  life  and  greatness,  so  that  though 
intimately  acquainted  with  His  human  poverty,  they  were  led  at 
last  to  reverence  Him  as  Divine! 


The  Disciples  of  the  Messiah  307 

6.  Coming  into  "  the  house  "  of  His  abode  in  Capernaum,  * 
Jesus  suddenly  confused  and  shamed  His  disciples  by  inquiring 
what  they  had  disputed  about  along  the  way.  At  least,  it  seems 
more  probable  that  Jesus  should  ask  this  than  that  the  disciples 
should  broach  the  subject,  as  St.  Matthew  records.  Though  at 
first  abashed,  one  of  the  Twelve  presently  said,  "  Who  is  the  great- 
est (in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven)  ?  "  The  repeated  recurrence  of 
this  dream  of  a  political  revival  in  Israel  among  the  disciples 
themselves,  even  after  Jesus  had  reiterated  the  prophecy  of  His 
passion  and  death,  only  shows  the  stubborn  tenacity  and  fanatical 
materialism  against  which  He  struggled  throughout  His  Min- 
istry. From  the  moment  that  they  had  first  followed  Him,  Jesus 
had  consistently  taught  that  God's  Reign  belongs  to  the  inward 
life  of  man ;  that  all  its  outward  manifestations  must  spring 
from  the  surrender  of  the  will  to  a  Divine  Purpose,  and  this 
common  obedience  will  bind  men  in  a  fellowship  of  fraternal 
love.  Life  itself  is  greater  than  its  external  conditions;  true 
greatness  must  be  the  magnitude  of  rendered  service.  While 
the  answer  of  Jesus  is  variously  reported,  the  reminiscence  of 
the  scene  that  followed  is  too  intrinsically  harmonious  with 
His  known  character  to  be  obscured.  Jesus  took  a  little  child 
and  placed  him  in  the  midst  of  those  ambitious  men.  St.  Mark 
states  that  He  clasped  the  little  one  in  His  arms.  "  I  tell  you 
truly,"  He  said,  "  unless  you  turn  and  become  like  little  children, 
you  shall  not  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Whoso  then  shall 
humble  himself  like  this  little  child,  he  is  the  greatest  in  the 
kingdom  of  heaven."  The  qualities  of  the  child  commended  by 
Him  are  those  which  lie  on  the  surface — trustfulness,  willing- 
ness to  forgive,  ready  inclination  to  help  others,  and  the  grace 
of  perfect  naturalness.  These  are  certainly  not  the  character- 
istics emulated  by  the  ordinary  man.  "  We  must  be  singularly 
different  from  the  common  race  of  men,  or  singularly  dull," 
says  a  Bampton  Lecturer,^  "  if  we  do  not  realize  that  our  actions 
and  thoughts  are  governed  by  a  jealous  sense  of  property — a 
relentless  insistence  on  personal  rights  and  personal  dignity, 
which  are  injurious  alike  to  our  own  moral  development,  and  to 
our  usefulness  as  members  of  a  society."  With  this  child  nes- 
tling in  His  arms,  Jesus  rebuked  the  hardness,  egoism  and  jealousy 
of   the    disciples.     "  In    antiquity   the   virtues   that   were   most 

*  Mark  ix.  33. 

*  J.  H.  F.  Peile,  The  Reproach  of  the  Gospel,  p.  102. 


308  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

admired  were  almost  exclusively  those  which  are  distinctively 
masculine.  Courage,  self-assertion,  magnanimity,  and,  above  all, 
patriotism,  were  the  leading  features  of  the  ideal  type;  and 
chastity,  modesty  and  charity,  the  gentler  and  the  domestic 
virtues,  which  are  especially  feminine,  were  greatly  under- 
valued." ^ 

Jesus  taught  the  paradoxes  of  Christianity : — weakness  is  some- 
times stronger  than  might ;  outward  shame  nobly  borne  becomes 
true  glory;  the  bondage  of  God's  service  is  a  nobler  emancipa- 
tion of  the  will  than  any  political  freedom  can  impart;  by  dying 
to  the  lower  self  man  is  regenerated  from  above.  Having  given 
the  ideal  and  type  of  discipleship,  Jesus  began  to  inculcate 
gentleness  toward  children  and  identified  their  cause  with  Him- 
self: "  He  who  receives  a  little  child  like  this  in  My  name  re- 
ceives Me,  and  he  who  receives  Me,  I'eceives  not  Me  but  Him 
that  sent  Me  " — a  characteristic  saying  blending  the  inimitable 
dignity  with  the  gracious  humility  of  Jesus.  This  Teacher  takes 
up  the  cardinal  virtues  of  wisdom,  courage,  temperance  and 
justice,  taught  before  by  the  sages  of  Greece,  and  breathes  into 
them  a  sweet  reasonableness  of  love;  He  adopts  the  five  great 
principles  of  Confucian  ethics — benevolence,  rectitude,  propriety, 
knowledge  and  sincerity,  infusing  into  them  a  new  childlike 
simplicity  and  the  warm  glow  of  inward  life.  But  while  we 
emphasize  the  teachings  of  Jesus,  we  recognize  that  His  direct 
aim  was  not  to  present  a  balanced  system  of  morals,  but  to  trans- 
form the  temper  of  His  disciples,  that  they  might  be  minded  to 
deny  themselves  and  take  up  the  Cross. 

7.  John  listened  to  this  doctrine  with  a  troubled  conscience, 
recalling  with  a  feeling  of  consternation  an  occurrence  in  which 
the  disciples  had  played  anything  but  a  childlike  part.  Although 
he  was  a  "  Son  of  Thunder,"  John  was  more  than  ordinarily 
susceptible  to  the  higher  teaching  of  Jesus,  and  evinced  a  teach- 
ableness that  endeared  him  to  the  Master.  He  was  less  im- 
petuous than  Simon,  but  still  of  a  fiery  temper;  and  yet  in  this 
very  confession  of  his  fault  may  be  traced  the  beginnings  of  an 
utter  transformation  of  character.  The  incident  John  referred 
to  probably  occurred  while  they  were  engaged  on  the  mission 
in  Galilee,  some  months  before.^     One  day  they  had   seen   a 

*  Lecky,  History  of  European  Morals,  vol.  ii.,  p.  361. 
«  Mark  ix.  38ff . 


The  Disciples  of  the  Messiah  309 

stranger  casting  out  demons  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  and  they 
had  imperiously  forbidden  the  unknown  exorcist  to  use  their 
Master's  name.  Such  a  phenomenon  serves  to  show  how  wide 
and  deep  an  impression  Jesus  had  made  in  spite  of  all  opposition. 
John's  prohibition  may  have  sprung  from  a  disciple's  jealousy 
of  a  spiritual  prerogative  rather  than  from  zeal  for  his  Lord's 
honour.  In  reply,  Jesus  laid  down  the  rule  by  which  men  may 
be  tested,  "  He  who  is  not  against  us  is  for  us."  It  recalls, 
however,  another  occasion  when  this  rule  was  stated  in  a  reverse 
and  more  rigorous  form,  "  Whoever  is  not  with  Me  is  against 
Me ;  and  whoever  gathers  not  with  Me,  is  scattering."  But  this 
latter  had  been  spoken  in  regard  to  men  openly  hostile  to  Jesus, 
who  attempted  to  turn  popular  rejoicing  at  a  beneficent  healing 
miracle  into  a  blasphemous  suspicion  that  Jesus  had  wrought 
the  cure  of  the  dumb  man  by  the  aid  of  the  devil — "  by  Beelzebub 
He  casteth  out  devils."  This  was  no  intellectual  errancy,  but 
rather  the  perversion  of  conscience,  and  for  this  sin  of  inward 
antagonism  to  Jesus,  which  never  hesitated  to  call  His  goodness 
evil,  there  was  no  hope.  On  the  other  hand,  there  ought  to 
be  a  tolerance  for  all  merely  external  disagreements,  and  every 
encouragement  must  be  given  to  the  incipient  faith  of  the 
ignorant.  Faith  may  begin  in  a  blind,  confused  feeling  of  con- 
fidence in  Christ's  goodness  and  power,  but  it  will  grow  to 
dauntless  heroism  in  His  Service,  The  unknown  exorcist  may 
have  used  the  name  of  Jesus  ignorantly  as  a  magic  spell,  but 
it  was  not  likely  that  he  would  quickly  turn  against  One  whose 
name  he  revered. 

8.  St.  Matthew  represents  the  conversation  of  that  day  as 
ending  when  Jesus  enunciated  the  principles  of  His  new  com- 
munity, but  St,  Mark  makes  it  terminate  with  an  uncompromising 
demand  for  loyalty  in  His  disciples  even  unto  death.  They 
were  to  be  salted  with  fire  in  the  tragic  events  which  were  at 
hand,  and  Jesus  pleads  with  them  to  "  be  at  peace  with  one 
another."  The  successive  stages  of  the  journey  from  Caesarea 
Philippi  to  Capernaum  had  given  the  Master  opportunitiec  for 
renewing  His  teaching  about  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  the 
character  of  its  members.  He  had  so  far  succeeded  that,  while 
He  had  contradicted  all  the  popular  notions  of  the  Coming  One, 
yet  His  disciples  were  impelled  to  confess  that  He  was  no  other 
than   the  true   Messiah.    After   this   confession,   however,   the 


310  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

special  task  of  Jesus  was  to  assimilate  the  disciples  to  His 
own  moral  type:  hence,  He  calls  upon  them  to  renounce  all 
selfishness  and  take  up  the  Cross.  They  were  not  to  imitate 
the  haughty  pride  and  jealousies  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees, 
but  were  to  become  childlike  in  heart,  so  that  the  Divine  Spirit 
might  rule  their  thoughts,  emotions  and  wills.  Jesus  had  given 
them  a  new  conception  of  God  through  which  they  were  to  in- 
terpret His  Kingdom.  By  example  He  taught  them,  showing 
Himself  to  be  willing  to  forego  His  own  rights,  and,  although 
a  Son,  to  pay  tribute  as  a  slave.  The  transformation  of  the 
disciples  depended  upon  a  full-hearted  loyalty  to  Himself;  by 
their  love  for  Jesus  those  men  might  practise  the  perfect  ethic 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  No  careful  adjustments  of  outward 
restraints  and  nice  artifices  of  deportment  could  help  them  very 
much;  the  life  Jesus  demanded  was  to  be  characterized  by  the 
spontaneity,  freshness  and  grace  of  childhood :  "  I  tell  you  truly, 
unless  you  turn  and  become  like  little  children,  you  shall  not 
enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  CHURCH  OF  THE  MESSIAH 

I.  It  is  in  every  way  credible  that,  at  this  period  when  Jesus 
was  dedicating  Himself  to  an  act  of  sublime  sacrifice,  His  own 
thoughts  and  purposes  should  break  forth  like  a  long-suppressed 
fire  into  the  intensity  and  luminousness  of  a  self-revealing  flame. 
Jesus  designed  the  institution  of  a  Church,  and  discoursed,  it 
may  be,  while  the  child  remained  in  the  midst  of  the  disciples, 
concerning  the  constitution  and  inward  rule  of  this  New  Society. 
But  since  sober  and  devout  scholars  have  doubted  if  Jesus  ever 
conceived  of  the  existence  of  the  Christian  Church  as  a  distinct 
community  separate  from  Judaism,  it  may  be  taken  for  granted 
that  the  subject  of  His  teaching  about  the  Church  is  involved 
in  perplexity.  On  two  occasions  only  is  the  term  "  church  "  ^ 
reported  to  have  been  spoken  by  Jesus;  and  since,  of  the  four 
evangelists,  only  one  attributes  this  word  to  the  Master,  doubt 
has  arisen  concerning  it.  Again,  it  is  said  that  the  vivid  im- 
pression made  by  Jesus  upon  the  minds  of  His  disciples  that  He 
would  come  again  speedily  to  sum  up  all  things,  precludes  the 
belief  that  He  planned  a  distinct  organization  of  His  followers 
into  a  community.  The  upspringing  of  such  doubts  brings  no 
disproof  that  Jesus  said  to  Simon,  "  On  this  rock  I  will  build 
My  Church."  Our  foregoing  study  of  His  Ministry  has  con- 
vinced us  that  Jesus  was  no  futile  dreamer,  but  that  He  was  a 
powerful  Leader  of  men — ^the  self-conscious  Founder  of  a  new 
Spiritual  Community  in  the  world.  However  immense  the  con- 
tribution of  St.  Paul  to  Christianity,  the  idea  of  the  Church 
was  not  due  to  him,  but  to  Christ.  That  He  did  not  plan  the 
actual  ecclesiastical  organizations  which  exist  today,  does  not 
prove  that  He  contemplated  no  future  for  His  disciples,  and 
gave  no  rules  for  the  new  fellowship.  The  Reign  of  the  Heavenly 
Father,  which  was  the  fundamental  idea  in  Christ's  mind,  could 
be  realized  only  through  a  community  historically  conditioned. 
While  it  is  correct  to  think  of  this  Kingdom  as  spiritual  and 
subjective — ^as  "  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy 

*  Matt.  xvi.  l8 ;  xviii.  17,  eiacXriaia. 
311 


312  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

Ghost " — it  is  also  equally  true,  that  Jesus  Himself  set  forth 
the  establishment  of  this  Kingdom  as  a  concrete,  organic  reality, 
small  indeed  in  its  beginnings,  but  destined  to  attain  to  vast 
dimensions  as  a  spiritual  society.  The  conception  of  a  Church 
was  not  a  strange  thought  in  Israel.  The  history  of  God's  Reve- 
lation to  His  people  had  created  the  idea  of  an  ecclesia  which 
combined  the  ideal  and  the  empirical  aspects  of  the  Divine  King- 
dom— that  is,  of  a  Church  separate  from  the  nation,  and  com- 
posed of  a  "  remnant "  of  spiritual  people  bound  together  by  the 
covenant  of  Jehovah.  This  historic  fact  is  itself  a  refutation 
of  the  supposition  that  it  was  inherently  impossible  for  Jesus 
to  conceive  of  a  Church  separate  from  the  Jewish  nation.  He 
who  sought  to  conserve  the  continuity  of  Revelation  might  most 
naturally  adopt  an  idea  so  well  adapted  to  the  results  of  His 
own  ministry.  And  in  the  later  stages  of  His  career  Jesus  sought 
to  breathe  into  His  disciples  a  definite  consciousness  of  fellow- 
ship, to  promote  the  esprit  de  corps  of  an  ecclesia.  Until  this 
time,  these  disciples  were  simply  a  group  of  men  attached  to 
Jesus  and  persuaded  that  He  was  the  Messiah;  but  now  the 
Master  set  Himself  to  mould  this  common  affection  for  Himself 
into  a  mutual  bond  among  them.  He  inspires  them  with  a  defi- 
nite consciousness  of  unity,  so  that  they  already  constituted  the 
beginning  of  His  Church  in  the  world.  Their  obsession  by 
ideas  of  the  august  splendour  of  a  Davidic,  national  revival  really 
menaced  the  society  of  Jesus :  hence  He  unremittingly  sought  to 
supplant  this  politico-ethical  dream  by  His  own  conception  of 
spiritual  triumph  to  be  won  through  passion  and  sacrifice.  Jesus 
was  encouraged  by  the  fact  that  they  had  survived  the  first  shock 
of  disappointment,  and  had  continued  loyally  to  serve  Him  as 
disciples,  when  all  the  representative  leaders  of  the  nation  had 
openly  rejected  Him.  Having,  then,  so  effectually  taught  His 
disciples  the  lesson  of  humility  through  the  child,  Jesus  began 
to  show  the  nature  of  the  fellowship  that  He  was  creating. 

2.  The  general  thought  of  our  time  wavers  in  uncertainty  as 
to  whether  emphasis  must  be  laid  upon  the  socialism  of  Jesus,  or 
upon  His  individualism:  in  His  teaching  the  pendulum  swings 
from  the  one  side  to  the  other  with  a  regularity  that  has  baffled 
many.^     However,   that   men    can    read   the   Gospels    and    still 

'Admirably  treated  in  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Question,  by  Francis 
Greenwood  Peabody. 


The  Church  of  the  Messiah  313 

hesitate  concerning  this,  is  itself  evidence  that  the  socialism  and 
the  individualism  are  both  present,  and  that  there  is  no  real 
contradiction  between  them.  The  claims  of  Jesus  to  be  the  Son 
of  Man,  to  be  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life,  to  be  the  Succourer 
of  all  who  feel  spiritual  needs,  imply  in  their  profound  mysticism 
the  underlying  unity  of  the  race,  and  also  that  the  racial  life 
is  organically  summed  up  in  Him,  The  mysticism  we  generally 
attribute  to  St.  Paul  is  latent  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  The  Christ 
will  not  be  historically  complete  until  all  individuals  of  the  race 
are  integrated  in  His  Body.  No  one  ever  felt  the  unity  of  the 
race  more  profoundly  and  persistently  than  did  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth. Nevertheless,  the  society  of  Jesus  could  only  be  consti- 
tuted by  spiritually  renewed  individuals.  His  words  about  "  one 
of  these  little  ones  "  reveal  a  deep  personal  feeling,  which  enabled 
Him  to  sweep  aside  all  the  mere  accidents  of  wealth  and  rank, 
and  to  think  alone  of  every  man  as  a  human  soul.  The  whole 
teaching  of  Jesus  is  pervaded  by  the  thought  of  God's  ineffable 
grace  toward  every  erring  son  of  man.  The  Good  Shepherd 
leaves  the  ninety  and  nine  of  His  flock  safely  folded,  and  goes 
to  seek  the  one  strayed  sheep.  It  is  He,  and  not  the  silly 
wanderer,  who  feels  most  deeply  its  loss;  and  in  its  recovery, 
He  has  keener  joy  than  the  safety  of  all  the  others  had  given 
Him.  It  is  not  the  Father's  will  that  one  of  these  "  little  ones  " 
should  perish.  Jesus  knew  that  Messiah's  mission  was  to 
accomplish  this  Divine  purpose  of  salvation.  The  "  fold  "  into 
which  this  Shepherd  King  would  bring  men  is  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  This  very  attempt  to  penetrate  the  thought  of  this  strong, 
beautiful  individualism  swings  the  mind  back  again  to  renewed 
emphasis  upon  the  community;  for  as  the  Divine  Regnancy  is 
acknowledged,  men  are  filled  with  a  fraternal  sentiment  for  their 
fellows.  Jesus  is  Himself  the  Rock  upon  which  this  fellowship 
must  be  established;  love  to  Him  is  the  bond  between  all  its 
members.  "  For,"  said  He,  "  where  two  or  three  are  gathered 
together  in  My  name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them."  There 
is  a  marvellous  modernity  in  this  phase  of  His  teaching;  and 
we  are  learning  afresh  that  the  only  true  Socialism  must  de- 
pend upon  thoroughgoing  Christian  individualism.  Such  in- 
dividual allegiance  to  Christ  can  work  out  only  in  social  ethics, 
and  will  give  brotherhood  in  place  of  mutual  animosities, 
cooperation  for  competition,  and  altruism  instead  of  selfish- 
ness. 


314  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

3.  Jesus  did  not  hesitate  to  place  His  cause  in  the  hands  of 
men  who  were  loyally  attached  to  Himself.  Were  we  to  con- 
template these  apostles  only  after  the  Ascension,  we  should 
indeed  perceive  the  results  of  their  training  in  the  School  of 
Jesus,  by  which  they  were  prepared  for  the  equipment  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  but  we  should  miss  the  lessons  of  the  time  of  their 
uncertainty  and  spiritual  immaturity.  They  were  not  great  men 
in  the  ordinary  sense ;  they  were  representative  of  the  common 
man,  possessing  neither  wealth  nor  learning,  but  they  were  quali- 
fied for  discipleship  by  their  genuine  desire  for  goodness  and 
truth.  With  one  exception,  they  maintained  a  strict  moral  in- 
tegrity, and,  guided  by  the  simple  principle  of  faith  in  Jesus, 
they  escaped  the  intrigues  of  professional  religionists  and  defied 
opposition.  We  see  them  as  they  really  were;  for  although  St. 
Luke  sometimes  omits  or  softens  down  their  occasional  blunders, 
they  are  not  idealized,  but  are  portrayed  with  realistic  veracity. 
At  first  their  characters  were  marred  by  touches  of  worldliness 
and  selfish  ambition;  they  were  often  culpably  stupid  or  slow 
of  understanding,  and  all  too  little  appreciative  of  the  Master's 
spiritual  aims :  still,  in  spite  of  these  inevitable  defects,  they 
cherished  a  generous  enthusiasm  for  Jesus,  which  saved  them 
from  ignoble  apostasy,  and  afforded  inspiration  for  service  in 
His  Kingdom.  It  may  be  that  their  intellectual  and  spiritual 
limitations — for  they  were  men  of  narrow  outlook  and  devoid 
of  philosophical  tendencies — were  a  qualification  for  transmitting 
without  substantial  change  the  evangelic  deposit  committed  to 
them.  In  Jesus  they  came  to  find  the  Word  of  Life,  and  as 
sowers  they  went  forth  scattering  this  truth-seed  into  the  fur- 
rows of  the  world;  and  the  harvest  resulting  from  their  labours 
is  the  Christian  Church. 

4.  In  instituting  the  apostolate  of  this  Fellowship,  Jesus  exer- 
cised a  searching  discrimination  of  character,  together  with  a 
sure  prevision  of  the  work  they  were  to  do.  According  to  St. 
Luke,  He  found  seventy  besides  the  Twelve  who  were  willing 
to  act  as  His  heralds  of  the  New  Kingdom;  and  alongside  the 
immediate  purpose  of  evangelism  in  their  mission,  Jesus  planned 
a  training  of  these  witnesses  for  a  broader  propaganda  in  the 
future.  While  He  earnestly  desired  to  build  His  Church  on  the 
rock-character  of  a  faith-confession  of  His  Messiahship,  He 
did  not  accept  every  volunteer,  but  demanded  from  the  can- 


The  Church  of  the  Messiah  315 

didate  some  touch  of  spiritual  heroism.  Had  we  forejudged 
His  movement  without  the  data  of  the  Gospel  narrations,  we 
might  have  surmised  that  His  chosen  agents  would  have  been 
men  of  learning  and  rank ;  but  history  corrects  such  a  presupposi- 
tion, showing  the  professional  class  of  scribes  to  have  been  coldly 
formal,  not  only  insusceptible  to  the  moral  idealism  of  Jesus,  but 
bitterly  opposed  in  temper  and  aims.  Both  foresight  and  neces- 
sity threw  Jesus  back  in  trust  upon  the  ordinary  people;  the 
Chosen  Twelve  were  common  men,  fishermen  and  peasants. 
However,  even  among  the  scribes  there  were  some  bright  ex- 
ceptions ;  and  one  of  this  nobler  sort  having  listened  to  the 
unconventional,  profound  teaching  of  the  Master,  was  caught  in 
a  wave  of  enthusiasm.^  "  Lord,"  he  exclaimed  impulsively,  "  I 
will  follow  Thee  whithersoever  Thou  goest."  One  writer  judges 
the  young  man's  oflfer  somewhat  morosely.  "  In  the  man's  flaring 
enthusiasm  Jesus  saw  the  smoke  of  egotistical  self-deceit " ;  but  we 
ought  not  to  reproach  him  for  a  recognition  of  Jesus'  inherent 
greatness,  which  meant  at  least  a  temporary  renunciation  of 
class  prejudice.  Jesus  pointed  to  the  penury  and  hardship  in- 
volved in  such  discipleship :  "  The  foxes  have  dens,  and  the  birds 
of  the  air  resting-places,  but  the  Son  of  Man  hath  not  where  to 
lay  His  head."  This  was  virtually  saying  to  him,  "  You  are  look- 
ing for  a  political  Messiah,  but  I  am  only  a  poor  man;  you 
demand  the  privileges  of  a  caste,  but  I  offer  only  the  reward  of 
a  good  conscience."  To  follow  the  Son  of  Man  was  to  court  the 
odium  of  schism,  and  to  strip  himself  of  the  pride  of  his  re- 
ligious order,  and  the  man,  with  all  his  good  impulses,  could  not 
rise  to  the  moral  level  of  Christ's  heroic  test. 

5.  A  contrast  to  this  impetuous  volunteer  is  given  in  the 
case  of  the  man  whom  Jesus  called,  and  who  made  filial  piety 
a  pretext  for  his  refusal.  "  Lord,  permit  me  first  to  go  and 
bury  my  father,"  an  oriental  way  of  saying  that  until  his  father 
died  his  first  duty  was  with  him.  Dr.  A.  Plummer  thinks  that 
the  man's  father  was  in  extremis,  or  had  just  died,  since  to  put 
off  Jesus  indefinitely  would  have  been  unworthy  trifling.  But 
more  familiarity  with  Eastern  modes  of  thought  and  speech 
would  diminish  all  sense  of  strangeness  in  this  man's  excuse. 
Ordinarily,  the  voice  of  God  comes  to  us  through  the  relationships 
and  affections  of  family  life,  and  only  in  cases  of  extraordinary 
*  Matt.  viii.  19-22;  Luke  ix.  57-60. 


316  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

election  to  some  solemn  office  does  the  Divine  imperative  clash 
with  common  duties.^  The  answer  of  Jesus  implies  that  the 
man  had  come  to  a  moral  crisis  in  his  life,  and  that  his  special 
peril  lay  in  the  engrossing  interests  of  social  and  family  ties. 
He  was  thinking  simply  of  the  death  of  the  body ;  but  far  more 
to  be  dreaded  is  the  moral  death  of  the  soul,  in  which  experience 
man's  higher  nature  is  degraded,  and  affections  designed  for  God 
are  often  changed  into  guilty  lusts.  Then  there  is  still  another 
kind  of  death — one  to  be  desired;  and  this  results  from  renun- 
ciation of  the  world — a  death  to  all  that  is  base  and  evil;  for 
this  is  dying  to  live.  "  As  for  thee,  let  the  dead  bury  their  dead, 
put  aside  all  subordinate  calls  then,  and  come,  follow  Me." 

It  is  always  of  interest  to  observe  the  reproduction  of  the 
thoughts  of  Jesus  in  our  modern  writers ;  and  at  this  point  many 
will  recall  Hegel,  of  whom  Professor  E.  Caird  has  written,  "  To 
him,  therefore,  the  great  aphorism,  in  which  the  Christian  ethics 
and  theology  may  be  said  to  be  summed  up,  that  '  he  that  saveth 
his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  he  that  loseth  his  life  shall  save  it,' 
is  no  mere  epigrammatic  saying,  whose  self-contradiction  is  not 
to  be  regarded  too  closely;  it  is  rather  the  first  distinct,  though 
as  yet  undeveloped,  expression  of  the  exact  truth  as  to  the  nature 
of  Spirit."  2  Again,  "  What  Christianity  teaches  is  only  that  the 
law  of  the  life  of  the  Spirit — the  law  of  self-realization  through 
self-abnegation — holds  good  for  God  as  for  man,  and,  indeed,  that 
the  spirit  that  works  in  man  to  '  die  to  live  '  is  the  Spirit  of  God." 
"  Nor  can  this  be  a  merely  natural  process — i.e.  a  process  in 
which  the  opposition  melts  away  without  being  heard  of.  Rather 
it  is  a  process  which  begins  with  a  distinct  consciousness  of  in- 
dependence to  be  renounced,  of  opposition  to  be  overcome,  and 
which  involves,  therefore,  an  *  explicit  surrender ' — a  conscious 
reconciliation  of  the  opposition."  The  "  explicit  surrender,"  how- 
ever, cannot  be  made  to  an  abstract  idea;  only  to  the  Messiah 
or  King  of  the  conscience,  will  the  soul  bow  in  fealty.  Christ 
demanded  not  only  a  detachment  from  the  world,  but  also  an 
attachment  to  Himself.  We  have  dwelt  upon  this  philosophical 
exposition  of  the  law  of  sacrifice  at  this  point  because  it  describes, 
in  the  language  of  the  twentieth  century,  the  constitutive  ethic  of 
the  Christian  Church. 

*One  commentator  quotes  Augustine:   "Araandus  est  generator,  sed 
praeponendus  est  Creator." 

•Professor  E.  Caird's  Hegel,  pp.  212,  218. 


The  Church  of  the  Messiah  317 

6.  A  third  example  of  Christ's  rigorous  exclusion  from  the 
apostolate  of  all  double-minded  and  unreliable  candidates  is  re- 
corded by  St.  Luke — from  the  apostolate,  not  from  the  ecclesia 
or  kingdom.  It  is  a  mischievous  confusion  to  assume  that  He 
intended  every  man  to  become  an  apostle;  all  men  are  called  to 
enter  the  Kingdom,  but  only  a  comparatively  small  number  was 
elected  to  the  apostolate.  This  third  candidate  for  discipleship 
was  like  the  first  we  have  described,  in  that  he  offered  himself, 
and  like  the  second,  he  desired  to  delay  on  account  of  duty  to 
his  friends.  "  I  will  follow  thee.  Lord,  but  first  let  me  bid  fare- 
well to  them  that  are  at  my  house."  The  wish  to  bid  good-bye 
impresses  us  as  an  amiable  and  natural  sentiment;  but  Jesus 
divined  some  flaw  in  the  man's  resolution,  and  warned  him 
against  double-mindedness.  *'  No  man  having  put  his  hand  to 
the  plough  and  looking  back,  is  well  fitted  for  the  kingdom  of 
God."  "  He  who  cares  for  his  work,"  said  an  ancient  writer,^ 
"  and  would  plough  straight  furrows  must  no  more  look  wist- 
fully after  his  comrades,  but  must  put  his  soul  into  his  task." 
Jesus  had  the  gift,  which  has  belonged  to  most  leaders,  of  read- 
ing character ;  He  knew  what  was  in  man.  He  strove  to  repress 
rash  enthusiasm,  to  brace  up  the  hesitating  man  to  effective 
resolution,  to  draw  the  divided  mind  into  unity  with  the  Divine 
Will.  A  parallel  to  this  treatment  of  men  is  found  in  the 
Analects  of  China;  Confucius  met  the  rash  boldness  of  his 
most  energetic  disciple  with  the  sobering  counsel  that  he  should 
first  consult  with  his  father  and  elder  brother,  while  he  urged  a 
slower  and  more  timorous  pupil  to  carry  out  his  teaching  at 
once.2  High  purposes  demand  the  whole-hearted  service  of  those 
who  execute  them. 

7.  The  Divine  election  of  a  man  to  this  apostolate  of  the 
Messianic  Kingdom  was  "  an  election  to  the  Cross  and  to  the 
cry, '  Eli,  Eli,  lama  Sabacthani.'  "  Jesus  was  calling  men  to  share 
His  own  Divine  Mission;  but  only  those  who  were  dedicated 
to  the  loyalty  of  belief  in  His  Messiahship  were  fitted  for  such 
a  work.  The  claim  of  Jesus  upon  the  apostles  was  absolute; 
He  could  brook  no  rivals;  they  were  called  to  give  Him  the 
supreme  place  in  their  hearts,  and  for  His  sake  they  were  to  be 
ready  to  suffer  and  die.  "  There  is  no  absolute  death,  but  in  all 
death  the  means  of  a  higher  life."    We  must  die  to  live. 

*  Hesiod,  Works  and  Days,  Op.  443.  *  Analects,  bk.  xi.,  ch.  xxi. 


318  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

And  those  men  who  responded  to  His  call  shared  in  the 
conscious  dignity  of  His  mission ;  they  ultimately  became  His 
ambassadors,  and  were  bound  together  into  a  corporate  life 
forming  a  new  koinonia.  They  failed,  indeed,  at  first  to  appre- 
ciate His  lofty  aims,  and  so  they  could  not  in  the  beginning 
comprehend  their  own  destiny;  but  after  His  Resurrection  they 
were  endowed  with  truer  spiritual  vision  of  the  vocation  into 
which  the  Master  had  led  them.  This  group  of  disciples  came 
at  last  to  assimilate  Christ's  consciousness  of  God;  they  were 
drawn  into  organic  union  by  the  magnetic  currents  of  His  love, 
and  were  trained  by  Him  for  a  world-wide  mission.  Philosophers 
and  poets  had  dreamed  of  a  golden  age  in  a  dim,  half -forgotten 
antiquity,  but  Jesus  took  up  the  bold  hope  of  the  prophets  of 
a  glorious  kingdom,  yet  to  be  realized.^  Oriental  sages  had  rep- 
resented all  things  as  moving  in  recurrent  cycles;  the  Jewish 
prophets  believed  in  a  rectilinear  movement  toward  a  definite 
goal,  and  in  their  writings  we  find  the  beginnings  of  a  sound 
philosophy  of  history.-  Jesus  definitely  set  out  to  fulfil  the  dreams 
of  the  inspired  prophets  and  instituted  the  fellowship  of  His 
disciples  as  the  beginnings  of  the  Messianic  Kingdom.  Into  this 
ecclesia  He  threw  the  fire  of  His  love — a  fire  which  transmutes 
the  fuel  it  meets  into  its  own  substance ;  and  from  this  love  has 
sprung  the  creative  energy  of  a  new  progress.  The  dynamic 
connection  of  man's  uplift  with  the  Person  and  teaching  of  Jesus 
is  too  apparent  to  be  denied.  The  ecclesia,  therefore,  may  be 
truly  described  as  created  by  the  enthusiasm  of  Jesus :  for  it  He 
gave  His  life  as  a  ransom.  Within  this  community  the  law 
of  life  is  the  imitation  of  Himself  in  an  inward  and  vital  way. 
When  we  consider,  therefore,  the  end  Jesus  had  in  view,  we 
cease  to  wonder  at  His  rigorous  demand  for  moral  heroism; 
His  rejection  of  all  who  were  lukewarm  or  vacillating  is  ex- 
plicable, and  His  call  for  self-renunciation  and  appeal  for  pas- 
sionate attachment  to  Himself  are  seen  to  have  been  inevitable. 
Jesus  was  preparing  the  Body  of  His  perpetual  incarnation — 

'  "  I  can  hear  a  faint  crow  of  the  cock  of  fresh  mornings,  far,  far,  yet 

distinct."     Meredith,  The  Empty  Purse,  p.  45. 
"  Then  are  there   fresher  mornings  mounting  East   than  ever  yet   have 

dawned."     Meredith,  Poems  and  Lyrics,  p.  150. 
2  "  Prophecy  is  the  philosophy  of  history.     Prophecy  is  history  become 
conscious, — history  expressing  its  own  meaning.     But  prophecy  is  not  the 
philosophy  of  ordinary,  but  of  Jewish  history."    A.   B.   Davidson,   Old 
Testament  Prophecy,  p.  98. 


The  Church  of  the  Messiah  319 

beating  out  the  instrument  of  His  universal  spiritual  activity. 
And  the  self-consciousness  of  the  Master  in  these  graduated  steps 
of  His  advancing  mission  can  scarcely  be  denied  by  those  who 
admit  the  Gospels  as  historical. 

8.  We  have  found  frequent  occasion  to  observe,  in  the  course 
of  this  study  of  Christ's  Ministry,  that  He  sought  to  focus  His 
ethical  doctrines  into  one  life-determining  fealty  to  Himself. 
His  explanations  of  this  remarkable  claim  show  that  Jesus  did 
not  set  Himself  to  be  the  substitute  for  God,  but  that  He  is  the 
way  to  the  Heavenly  Father.  Were  we  to  ignore  this  relation- 
ship between  Jesus  and  the  Father  Christianity  would  simply 
mean  the  recrudescence  of  idolatry;  if  He  be  not  the  way  to 
God,  then  His  religion  resolves  itself  into  man-worship.  The 
claim  of  Jesus  to  be  man's  rightful  Lord  gives  point  and  definite- 
ness  to  the  ethical  teaching  of  our  noblest  modern  philosophers 
that  man  can  realize  his  true  life  only  by  self-surrender.  This 
idea  of  Divine  transcendence  posits  the  only  adequate  authority 
capable  of  making  the  voice  of  conscience  imperative  and  effect- 
ual. It  involves  a  separation  of  God  from  man,  indeed,  but  a 
separation  which  evolves  into  ethical  reunion.  Whether  the  life 
of  Jesus  justified  this  tremendous  personal  claim  or  not,  can  only 
be  judged  of  by  those  who  study  to  understand  its  facts  and  im- 
plications. Early  in  His  Ministry  He  elected  Twelve  disciples, 
and  at  the  time  of  their  ordination  He  enunciated  the  ultimate 
principles  of  moral  and  religious  life ;  and  in  doing  so,  He 
freely  abandoned  the  letter  of  the  Mosaic  law  for  a  triumphant 
explication  of  its  inmost  spirit.  It  has  been  said  that  "  He  appears 
to  have  been  content  with  the  Jewish  Church,  in  which  He  was 
born,  as  a  framework  for  Spiritual  Religion  " ;  ^  and  it  is  true 
that,  after  His  Resurrection,  the  disciples  piously  observed  the 
old  forms  of  Judaism,  as  though  the  New  Spirit  could  continue 
to  express  itself  in  the  old  conditions.  When  Jesus  delivered 
His  Mountain  discourse.  He  may  not  have  clearly  foreseen  the 
final  severance  of  His  society  from  Israel,  since  He  then  hoped 
that  the  nation  would  give  due  acknowledgement  of  His  spiritual 
authority;  but  the  experience  of  the  subsequent  months  had 
brought  about  the  breach  between  the  national  representatives  and 
Himself,  and  He  could  not  but  see  that  the  rejection  of  the 
Messiah  made  it  inevitable  that  a  complete  severance  would 
*  Peile,  The  Reproach  of  the  Gospel,  p.  140. 


320  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

take  place  between  His  disciples  and  Judaism.  It  is  thought  by 
some  that  Jesus  was  too  much  prepossessed  by  the  belief  in  His 
speedy  Second  Coming  to  give  any  thought  to  the  external  in- 
stitutions of  a  Church;  and  yet  it  is  indubitable  that  He  Himself 
foretold  that  the  new  wine  of  His  teaching  would  burst  the  old 
wineskins.  To  prevent,  therefore,  the  disintegration  and  scatter- 
ing of  His  disciples,  Jesus  sought  to  infuse  into  them  the  con- 
sciousness of  an  organic  life,  of  which  He  was  to  be  the  abiding 
bond  and  inspiration. 

9.  The  early  parables  of  the  mustard  seed  and  the  leaven  show 
that  Jesus  did  most  certainly  foresee  the  growth  of  His  religious 
community,  and  in  the  later  months  of  His  Ministry  the  uncon- 
cealed antagonism  of  the  authoritative  representatives  of  Judaism 
made  it  plain  that  His  Church  must  be  independent  of  the  temple 
and  synagogues.  It  was  not  the  plan  of  Jesus  to  force  any 
premature  severance,  but  with  wise  prevision  He  designed  to 
prepare  His  disciples  for  the  unescapable  issue.  In  His  indi- 
vidual followers  He  had  sought  to  induce  a  habit  of  humility, 
conjoined  with  a  temper  of  heroic  daring:  by  their  common 
allegiance  to  Himself,  they  formed  a  fellowship,  and  into  this 
society  Jesus  breathed  a  legislative  wisdom.  Jesus  was  fully 
aware  that  misunderstanding  would  arise  in  a  society  of  imperfect 
men;  tares  would  grow  up  with  the  wheat,  and  perils  would 
spring  from  the  personal  ambitions  of  His  disciples.  Foreseeing 
these,  the  inevitable  incidents  of  any  new  society's  developments, 
He  could  not  but  seek  to  forewarn  and  forearm  His  followers. 
Should  one  member  of  the  fraternity  give  offence  to  another, 
the  offended  brother  is  instructed  by  Jesus  to  seek  out  the 
offender  alone  and  endeavour  to  win  him  to  repentance;  if  he 
fails  in  this  purpose,  two  or  three  of  the  brethren  shall  remon- 
strate.^ In  a  case  of  irreconcilable  antagonism,  the  whole  com- 
munity ought  to  be  informed ;  then,  if  the  recalcitrant  refused 
to  obey  the  will  of  the  ecclesia,  he  must  be  treated  as  having 
cut  himself  off  from  fellowship.  Jesus  Himself  is  thus  credited 
in  the  Gospels  with  having  laid  the  ground-plan  of  the  internal 
discipline  of  this  new  society  and  to  have  solemnly  committed 
to  the  apostolate  the  power  of  remitting  or  retaining  sins.  The 
right  of  punishment  was  delegated  to  the  disciples  by  Jesus — 
not  the  chastisement  of  private  faults,  but  of  public  offences. 
*  Matt,  xviii.  15-20;  Luke  xyii.  3. 


The  Church  of  the  Messiah  321 

This  disciplinary  power  of  binding  and  loosing  by  the  apostolate 
is  sanctioned  in  Heaven.  The  keys  that  were  first  promised 
to  Simon,  when  He  confessed  Jesus  to  be  the  Messiah,  are  now 
given  to  all  the  disciples.  The  organization  of  the  Church  was 
at  this  stage  simplicity  itself ;  the  common  bond  among  the  mem- 
bers was  loyalty  to  Jesus,  and  the  natural  leaders  were  the 
Twelve  who  had  been  trained  by  our  Lord  Himself.  These  apos- 
tles, however,  were  to  be  the  organs  of  the  spirit  of  the  ecclesia ; 
they  must  remember  that  they  are  brothers  of  all  the  members,  and 
that  the  true  test  of  greatness  lies  in  the  humble  service  they 
render  to  others.  It  was  the  collective  action  of  the  Church 
that  possessed  the  binding  power,  and  not  the  inherent  authority 
of  the  officials.  Jesus  warns  His  disciples  against  self-assertion 
and  claims  of  superiority,  against  the  use  of  titles — even  the 
simple  appellation  of  rabbi,  since  they  are  all  alike  children  of 
the  Sovereign  Father.  Their  powers  are  moral  and  spiritual, 
bearing  no  resemblance  to  distinctions  of  rank  and  dignity 
which  prevail  in  the  world;  let  them  agree  with  one  another  in 
prayer,  and  they  should  wield  limitless  influence,  since  God  would 
certainly  answer  petitions  made  in  the  name  of  Jesus.  While 
it  may  truly  be  that  we  have  mingled  apostolic  inferences  with 
the  actual  instructions  of  Jesus,  it  cannot,  I  think,  be  doubted 
that  the  Master  Himself  indicated  the  lines  of  the  future  devel- 
opment of  His  Church. 

lo.  Such  a  Spiritual  Society  necessarily  constituted  an  im- 
perium  in  imperio — a  coherent  organization,  which  could  be 
coterminous  with  the  nation  or  with  the  whole  race,  and  yet 
was  not  dependent  upon,  nor  derived  from,  existing  forms  and 
institutions  of  civilization.  It  was  to  be  the  organized  expression 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  The  fundamental  ethic  of  this  ecclesia 
is  a  spiritual  socialism  or  brotherhood.  Just  as  John  had  been 
indirectly  reproached  by  the  larger  tolerance  of  Jesus,  so  Simon 
was  at  this  time  impressed  by  the  new  conception  of  magnanimity ; 
in  response  to  his  inquiry  if  a  disciple  ought  to  forgive  a  brother 
seven  times,  Jesus  inculcates  the  spirit  of  unlimited  clemency.^ 
The  exclusion  of  an  incorrigible  offender  from  the  fellowship 
must  not  be  prompted  by  personal  rancour,  for  men  can  only 
secure  God's  forgiveness  by  forgiving  those  who  offend  them. 
Jesus  enforced  this  practical  ethic  of  forgiveness  by  a  striking 

*  Matt,  xviii.  21  f. 


322  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

parable.  A  debtor  once  received  his  sovereign's  remission  of  an 
immense  debt — of  the  almost  inconceivable  sum  of  two  millions 
four  hundred  thousand  pounds — and  then  went  and  maltreated 
a  fellow-slave,  who  owed  him  a  paltry  sum  of  twenty  pounds, 
and  threw  him  into  prison.  When  the  over-lord  heard  of  this 
gross  inhumanity,  he  revoked  his  own  act  of  pardon  and  incarcer- 
ated the  wretched  oppressor  "  until  he  should  pay  all  that  was 
due."  "  So,"  said  Jesus,  "  shall  My  Heavenly  Father  do  to  you, 
unless  you  cordially  forgive  everyone  his  brother."  (The  very 
enormity  of  the  first  debt  and  triviality  of  the  other  suggests  the 
homiletic  reflection  that  such  is  the  contrast  between  man's 
immeasurable  debt  to  God  and  the  little  wrongs  which  we  do 
each  other.  This  brotherly  and  placable  temper  does  not  min- 
imize the  true  evil  of  sin,  but  it  distinguishes,  as  with  a  sharp 
sword,  between  the  wrong-doer  and  the  evil  done.  It  is  not  the 
yielding  softness  of  weakness  that  Jesus  inculcates,  but  the 
powerful  control  of  the  disciple's  activity  by  the  rule  and  Spirit 
of  His  Lord.) 

II.  We  have  so  far  endeavoured  to  restrict  our  review  of 
the  Church  to  the  primitive  stage  of  Christ's  own  originating  act, 
to  His  definite  and  simple  rules  for  its  internal  discipline,  and 
for  the  conduct  of  the  individual  members ;  but  it  is  obligatory 
upon  us  to  make  some  passing  reference  to  the  Church's  relation 
to  the  world.  Professor  Paul  Wernle  treats  Christ's  emphasis 
upon  the  need  of  individual  regeneration  as  the  noblest  part  of  His 
teaching.  "  His  work  was  to  awaken  the  individual  to  love,  and 
to  make  the  individual  realize  his  responsibility  towards  his 
brother;  and  thus  Jesus  did  a  work  which  beyond  all  others 
was  for  eternity;  and  still  today  He  calls  us  back  from  the 
distracting  maze  of  programmes  and  panaceas  for  the  reform 
of  the  world,  to  the  reform  of  our  own  selves,  which  is  the 
reform  which  is  chiefly  needed."  ^  Against  this  view  Professor 
E.  Caird  has  reminded  us  that  Hegel  at  one  time  regarded  Chris- 
tianity "  as  a  moral  failure,  just  because  it  did  not  combine  with 
any  specific  national  institutions,  so  as  to  produce  a  living  de- 
velopment of  national  character."  "  How  light  in  the  scale," 
said  the  great  German,  "  weigh  the  whole  '  means  of  grace ' 
worked  by  the  Church,  backed  by  the  most  full  and  learned 
explanations,  when  the  passions  and  the  power  of  circumstances, 
*  Wernle,  Beginnings  of  Christianity,  p.  82. 


The  Church  of  the  Messiah  323 

of  education,  of  example,  and  of  the  government,  are  thrown 
into  the  opposite  scale !  The  whole  history  of  religion,  since 
the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era,  combines  to  show  that 
Christianity  is  a  religion  which  can  make  men  good  only  if  they 
are  good  already."  ^  According  to  Origen,  Celsus  also  urged 
that  men  should  "  take  office  "  in  the  government  of  the  country 
if  that  is  required  for  the  maintenance  of  the  laws  and  the 
support  of  religion.  But  when  the  modern  critic  charges  against 
Christianity,  that  it  makes  its  moral  appeal  only  to  those  who 
are  good  already,  we  exclaim  that  Celsus,  centuries  before  Hegel, 
had  made  it  an  accusation  against  the  Church  that  it  appealed 
almost  exclusively  to  those  who  are  morally  worthless.  "  Every 
one,  they  say,  who  is  a  sinner,  who  is  devoid  of  understanding, 
who  is  a  child,  and,  to  speak  generally,  whoever  is  unfortunate, 
him  will  the  Kingdom  of  God  receive.  Do  you  not  call  him  a 
sinner,  then,  who  is  unjust,  and  a  thief,  and  a  house-breaker, 
and  a  prisoner,  and  a  committer  of  sacrilege,  and  a  robber  of 
the  dead?  What  others  would  a  man  invite,  if  he  were  issuing 
a  proclamation  for  an  assembly  of  robbers?"^  Of  the  two 
critics  we  think  Celsus  the  clearer-headed,  and  yet  these  counter- 
charges are  neutralized  by  each  other:  perhaps  our  best  answer 
to  both  is  to  place  their  criticisms  in  juxtaposition,  as  above. 
We  refuse  to  admit  that  Christ's  teaching  is  adverse  to  genuine 
patriotism,  even  though  this  charge  be  repeated  by  thinkers  of 
the  repute  of  Hegel,  Mazzini  and  Lecky ;  we  believe,  on  the 
contrary,  that  Christianity  creates  the  noblest  patriots,  although 
the  real  scope  of  the  ethic  of  Jesus  is  not  national  but  universal ; 
and  the  Church,  so  far  as  it  is  loyal  to  its  Founder,  possesses 
an  expansibility  potentially  as  broad  as  the  human  race.  Not 
only  did  Jesus  refuse  to  be  a  political  Messiah;  He  declined 
also  the  judicial  functions  of  a  merely  social  reformer.  St.  Luke 
narrates  how,  when  asked  to  interfere  in  a  dispute  about  property, 
Jesus  said  to  the  disinherited  brother,  who  engages  our  sympathy, 
"  Man,  who  made  Me  a  judge  or  a  divider  over  you?  "  ^  On  the 
other  hand,  the  very  spirituality  and  rigorous  individualism  of 
Jesus  made  Him  universal ;  even  those  humanitarians  who  com- 
plain of  His  indifference  to  social  problems  have  drunk  deep 
draughts  of  inspiration  from  His  timeless  teaching.  This  true 
Messiah  pressed  back  beyond  the  external  symptoms  of  disorder 

*  Hegel,  by  E.  Caird,  p.  25. 
■  Origen  against  Celsus,  bk.  iii.,  chap.  lix.  ^  Luke  xii.  13-15. 


824  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

to  the  causes  of  disease  in  the  heart,  and  the  aim  of  His  Personal 
Ministry  and  of  His  Church  was  to  regenerate  the  springs  of 
action  within  man.  It  is  therefore  a  mistake  to  adjudge  His 
Church  as  unsocial,  unpatriotic  and  unconcerned  about  the  in- 
stitutions of  the  state.  The  time  is  at  hand  when  men  will 
be  astonished  at  the  potentiality,  range,  and  applicability  of  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  in  all  that  concerns  human  life. 

12.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  pass  from  this  subject  of  the 
Messiah's  Church  without  allusion  to  the  unhappy  divisions, 
jealousies  and  rivalries  that  have  torn  it  into  many  sects.  A  gulf 
separates  us  all  from  the  community  planned  by  Jesus  long  ago. 
The  societies  which  have  appropriated  His  holy  Name  are  given 
over  too  much  to  the  dominance  of  men  whose  motives  are 
found  in  worldly  selfishness  and  in  insatiable  ambition.  Often- 
times the  political  element  in  the  Church  has  utterly  stultified 
the  religious  principle.  It  was,  perhaps,  inevitable  that  the  note 
of  primitive  simplicity  should  disappear  from  the  Church  as  it 
became  knit  to  the  complex  forms  of  civilization.  The  ideal  can 
seldom  be  realized  in  the  actual  conditions  of  human  history; 
the  world's  alloy  was  bound  to  be  blended  with  the  fine  gold 
of  Christ's  teaching.  There  is  an  innate  stubbornness  in  the 
material  in  which  life  seeks  to  express  itself;  and  yet  one  feels 
that  the  Spirit  of  the  Church's  Founder  might  have  been  more 
faithfully  followed.  Amid  all  the  legitimate  expansions  and 
schemes  of  organization,  the  supreme  aim  of  the  disciples  ought 
ever  to  have  been  to  express  the  mind  of  the  Master.  In  His 
poverty,  humiliation  and  self-sacrifice  we  discern  the  true  char- 
acteristics of  discipleship.  The  love  of  titles,  the  ambition  for 
governing  and  sectarian  partisanship  have  not  only  tended  to 
destroy  the  Spirit  of  brotherhood,  but  have  also  introduced  an 
alien  character  into  the  communion  of  Christ's  brethren:  hence, 
neither  inwardly  nor  outwardly  has  the  Church  maintained  that 
loyalty  to  the  Messiah  which  alone  can  create  catholicity  and 
preserve  its  truth.  The  reform  of  the  churches  and  their  reunion 
can  come  only  as  we  press  back  upon  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  and 
throw  oflf  all  institutions  and  ceremonies  that  prove  themselves 
incompatible  with  His  teachings  concerning  the  Fatherhood  of 
God  and  brotherhood  of  man. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  DAYS  OF  HIS  ANALEPSIS 

I.  The  Marcan  construction  of  evangelic  history  has  served 
as  our  general  ground-plan  of  the  Ministry  of  Jesus,  but  we  have 
not  hesitated  to  modify  this  by  adopting  suggestions  arising  out 
of  the  study  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  nor,  seeing  the  lack  of  one 
fixed  chronology,  have  we  yielded  to  natural  scruples  against 
breaking  up  the  lengthy  interpolation  which  is  found  in  St.  Luke.^ 
In  his  classical  preface  the  third  evangelist  frankly  records  his 
own  method  and  aim  in  his  researches  and  in  his  literary  effort; 
and,  consequently,  he  has  made  it  impossible  to  deny  the  sub- 
stantial historicity  of  his  portrait  of  Jesus  without  impugning 
his  veracity.  But  while  St.  Luke  thus  supplies  an  anticipatory 
refutation  of  Strauss's  idea  that  the  Gospels  grew  from  the 
activity  of  a  myth-creating  imagination,  he  does  not  make  it 
incredible  that  the  materials  he  gathered  might  be  moulded  and 
composed  into  a  whole  under  the  influence  of  some  masterful  pre- 
conception. The  third  evangelist  may  have  first  learned  of  Jesus 
from  St.  Paul,  and  the  desire  and  design  to  write  the  narrative 
of  His  Ministry  may  have  sprung  from  the  dominating  con- 
viction that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  the  Lord  of  the  Apostolic 
Churches.  While  he  was  too  honest  to  introduce  into  his  gospel 
aught  that  he  knew  to  be  fictitious,  or  that  was  inharmonious 
with  his  own  impression  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  it  was  inevitable 
that  in  the  course  of  his  narrative  he  should  throw  into  prom- 
inence those  aspects  of  the  work  of  Jesus  which  convinced  him 
that  the  Man  of  Nazareth  was  indeed  the  Lord  preached  by 
St.  Paul.  It  is  but  fair  to  criticism,  however,  to  admit  that  the 
faith  in  the  Lordship  of  Jesus  was  due  rather  to  spiritual  ex- 
perience than  to  historical  evidence;  and  St.  Luke,  having  re- 
ceived this  conviction  from  his  Spiritual  Father,  set  out  to  find 
confirmation  of  the  same  in  the  extant  traditions  and  oral  testi- 
monies of  eye-witnesses.  It  does  not  follow,  however,  that  the 
Evangelist  forced  and  bent  the  accumulated  materials  of  his  narra- 
tive into  a  mould  foreign  to  the  thought  and  teaching  of  Jesus 

*Luke  ix.  51-xviii.  31. 
335 


326  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

Himself.  By  seeking  to  gain  a  clear  unbiassed  impression  of 
Jesus  from  all  the  writings  relating  to  His  Ministry,  we  have 
been  compelled  to  believe  that  He  Himself  did  actually  and  re- 
peatedly claim  to  be  the  Messiah  and  Master  of  men,  even  while 
He  was  engaged  in  transforming  the  popular  ideas  of  Messiah- 
ship.  Thus,  as  we  found  in  our  "  Introduction,"  behind  St.  Paul, 
who  taught  St.  Luke  to  know  the  Lord,  stood  Jesus  Himself — 
a  most  real  historical  Person,  intensely  human  and  undeniably 
transcendent.  Those  critics  who  depreciate  the  validity  of  St. 
Luke's  gospel  because  the  Evangelist  derived  his  Christianity 
from  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  might  do  well  to  ponder  the 
careful  judgement  of  Professor  P.  Wernle :  "  Facts  prove  that  St. 
Paul  knew  Jesus  in  spite  of  all — yes,  he  knew  Him  better  than 
all  his  predecessors.  What  he  brought  to  the  Greeks  was  no 
mere  product  of  his  imagination,  but  the  real  Jesus,  with  His 
promise,  His  claims,  and  His  redemption."  ^  Both  St.  Paul  and 
his  pupil  illustrate  the  truth  that  the  true  perspective  of  things 
can  be  seen  only  at  a  certain  distance.  It  is  seldom  that  a 
contemporary  immediately  perceives  in  a  comprehensive  manner 
the  true  drift  and  meaning  of  current  events.^  We  can,  there- 
fore, readily  understand  how  this  evangelist,  looking  back  upon 
the  historic  events  of  the  Ministry  of  Jesus  from  the  coign  of 
vantage  of  Pauline  Christology,  should  interpret  as  a  whole  the 
period  of  Christ's  self-dedication  to  the  Cross,  and  group  to- 
gether a  mass  of  incidents  relevant  to  this  concentrated  determina- 
tion of  Jesus  to  offer  Himself  at  Jerusalem. 

2.  Hence,  in  speaking  of  the  period  of  the  Analepsis,  the 
unity  given  to  the  events  grouped  under  the  term  is  due  not  so 
much  to  chronological  sequence  as  to  the  point  of  view  occupied 
by  the  Evangelist.  The  affirmation  affixed  by  St.  Luke  as  an 
introduction  to  his  "  great  interpolation  "  might  at  first  lead  many 
to  imagine  that  the  whole  of  the  subsequent  chapters  relate  to 
one,  slow,  Messianic  progress  towards  the  capital.  Dr.  A. 
Plummer,^    for   example,   assumes   that   this   was   so;   that   the 

^Beginnings  of  Christianity,  vol.  i.,  267. 

2  In  One  of  Our  Conquerors,  Meredith  says  of  one  called  upon  to 
recite  the  incidents  of  his  journey:  "The  little  man  did  not  know  that 
time  was  wanted  to  make  the  roadway  or  riverway  of  a  true  story,  unless 
we  press  to  invent ;  his  mind  had  been  too  busy  on  the  way  for  him 
to  clothe  in  speech  his  impressions  of  incidents  at  the  call  for  them." 

^  Inter.  Crit.  Com.,  in  loco. 


The  Days  of  His  Analepsis  327 

journey  lasted  several  months,  treating  the  several  allusions  to 
various  journeys  in  this  intercalated  section  as  simply  showing 
that  Jesus  frequently  stopped  to  preach  at  different  places,  while 
He  was  pursuing  His  last  journey  to  Jerusalem.^  Others,  how- 
ever, after  prolonged  and  repeated  examination  of  this  famous 
passage,  have  come  to  regard  it  as  a  compilation  of  events  and 
teachings  distributed  over  many  months  and  happening  in  differ- 
ent places,  believing  that  in  the  account  itself  are  found  allusions 
to  several  distinct  journeys,  while  the  last  return  to  the  capital  ^ 
began  much  later  than  the  date  to  be  ascribed  to  some  of  the 
incidents  in  this  part  of  the  gospel,  and  that  only  a  few  weeks, 
instead  of  months,  before  the  close  of  His  earthly  ministry  did 
Jesus  finally  take  His  departure  from  Galilee.  Although  an 
arbitrary  and  unnecessary  alteration  of  the  sequence  of  events 
related  in  our  Gospels  must  be  deprecated,  yet  as  soon  as  the 
attempt  is  made  to  form  some  chronological  plan  of  the  ministry, 
it  becomes  a  plain  necessity  to  transpose  some  of  the  incidents 
and  sayings.  The  natural  hesitation  to  incur  such  responsibility 
in  dealing  with  the  Lucan  interpolation  is  lessened  by  the  dis- 
covery that  the  Evangelist  was  determined  as  much  by  his  gov- 
erning idea  of  Jesus  as  by  the  chronology  of  his  story  in  grouping 
his  materials.  Should  it  still  be  objected  that  so  careful  an 
historian  as  St.  Luke  is  supposed  to  have  been  would  not  be 
likely  to  transgress  all  laws  of  chronology  by  "  massing  "  irrele- 
vant and  disconnected  materials,  it  can  only  be  suggested  in 
answer,  that  the  Evangelist  may  have  gathered  the  whole  of  this 
part  of  his  gospel  from  sources  apart  from  the  main  current 
of  tradition,  and  that  he  saw  that  any  attempt  to  distribute  his 
new  materials  over  the  Marcan  plan  would  only  confuse  and 
obscure  the  movement  of  events,  more  even  than  would  be 
done  by  a  bodily  insertion  of  all  his  freshly  discovered  materials 
as  a  separate  section  of  his  gospel.  But  St.  Luke  was  no  bald 
chronicler,  slavishly  sitting  at  the  foot  of  the  letter  and  repeating 
what  had  been  delivered  to  him  by  eye-witnesses  and  ministers 
of  the  Word;  this  pupil  of  St.  Paul's  had  his  own  insights  and 
original  contributions  of  thought.  As  he  pondered  over  the 
period  which  we  have  described  as  that  of  Christ's  self-dedica- 
tion, St.  Luke  perceived  that  our  Lord  was  incessantly  thinking 
of  the  tragic  exodus  He  was  about  to  make  at  Jerusalem,  that 
whatever  interruptions  and  delays  might  cross  His  path,  His 
*Luke  ix.  51;  xiii.  22;  xvii.  11.  2  Luke  xvii.  11. 


328  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

ruling  motive  was  henceforth  to  accomplish  His  Messianic  mis- 
sion in  Jerusalem.  St.  Luke  has  described,  in  solemn  and  stately 
words,  the  inward  purpose  and  outward  demeanour  of  "  the 
Lord  " :  "  When  the  days  were  being  fulfilled  of  His  analepsis, 
He  set  His  face  steadfastly  to  go  to  Jerusalem."  This  evangelist 
intended  that  all  his  readers  should  look  at  the  deepening  gloom 
of  tragedy  in  the  light  cast  by  the  triumph  of  the  Ascension, 
which  was  for  himself  the  master-light  of  all  his  seeing.^ 

3.  The  Hebraistic  phrase,  that  "  Jesus  set  His  face  fixedly 
towards  Jerusalem,"  shows  that  His  thought  had  outrun  experi- 
ence and  clearly  grasped  the  goal ; — that  He  apprehended  the 
Cross.  And  all  the  Gospels  agree  in  setting  forth  the  calm 
deliberation  and  autonomy  of  Jesus  as  He  drew  near  to  the  end; 
with  unresting  yet  unhasting  steps  He  moved  toward  the  fulfil- 
ment of  His  Mission.  The  intensity  of  His  own  purpose  and 
emotion  reveals  itself  in  the  stern  determination  of  His  counte- 
nance. In  every  great  life  there  are  moments  when  all  the 
faculties  and  attributes  of  personality  become  concentrated  in 
powerful  and  sometimes  prophetic  activity;  these  are  the  self- 
revealing  moments  when  all  the  passion  and  intention  of  the 
soul  blaze  forth  in  dynamical  speech  and  eloquent  action.  At 
such  dramatic  periods,  the  soul  throws  its  own  flash-light  upon 
the  unknown  future ;  to  adopt  the  simile  of  a  modern  novelist, 
it  is  like  a  boat  on  lake  Como  at  night,  from  the  prow  of  which 
a  small  lantern  casts  its  arrow  of  light  upon  the  darkness  ahead ; 
sometimes  such  vaticinations  of  the  unknown  are  pathetically 
futile,  like  the  curiosity  of  man  attacking  God's  impenetrable 
mysteries,  fluttering  into  the  darkness  a  few  inches  only  to 
be  swallowed  up  again  in  new  gloom.  But  what  impresses  us 
in  Jesus,  as  He  forecasts  the  tragic  future,  is  His  tone  of  assur- 
ance and  of  mastery.  The  arrowy  light  of  His  Intelligence  shot 
ahead  so  that  He  knew  the  gloom  and  terror  of  the  immediate 
future,  yet  He  appears  scarcely  to  have  thought  of  any  possibility 
of  escape.  From  the  first  foreword  concerning  His  Passion, 
there  steals  into  the  narratives  of  His  Ministry  a  note  of  deepen- 
ing intensity :  the  triumphant  certitude  of  His  language,  however, 
implies  that  the  mystery  predestined  for  Him  is  no  longer  im- 
penetrable ;  He  sees  the  Cross ;  and  yet,  beyond  the  midnight  of 
sorrow.  He  already  discerns  the  white  dawn  of  the  Resurrection. 

*Acts  i.  6-II. 


The  Days  of  His  Analepsis  329 

This  conception  of  our  Lord  is  not,  as  some  have  thought,  a  pure 
idealization  of  the  actual  Mind  of  Jesus.  Not  only  St.  Luke, 
but  also  the  other  evangehsts,  relate  that  whenever  He  spoke  of 
the  darkness  which  threatened  to  quench  the  light  of  His  life. 
He  added  that  His  immediate  failure  was  to  be  followed  by 
glorious  triumph.  Some  readers  of  His  life,  proceeding  from 
a  dogmatic  belief  in  His  Divinity  rather  than  from  historical 
inquiry,  have  assumed  that  Jesus  foresaw  in  clear  and  definite 
outline,  the  nature  of  the  final  crisis  at  the  time  of  His  struggle 
in  the  wilderness;  but  in  this  study  we  have  been  led  to  think 
that  Calvary  was  hidden  at  the  beginning ;  that,  although  He  had 
keenly  felt  the  pain  of  tearing  Himself  away  from  the  popular 
Messianism,  He  still  cherished  the  hope  that  Israel  would  receive 
His  message,  and  that  Jerusalem  might  become  the  centre  of  a 
great,  world-embracing  Spiritual  Religion.  The  Baptist  is  rep- 
resented to  have  described  Jesus  as  the  Lamb  of  God  which 
taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world;  and  if  he  really  used  this 
language,  he  either  spoke  ecstatically,  without  understanding  all 
the  deep  sacrificial  implications  of  his  words,  or  he  was  describ- 
ing, in  Isaianic  terms,  the  innocence  and  gentleness  of  Jesus. 
John's  own  subsequent  doubts  and  questioning  show  that  he  did 
not  enter  with  any  vital  understanding  into  the  necessity  of 
Christ's  sufifering.  The  idea  of  the  consummating  sacrifice  of  the 
Lamb  of  God,  though  latent  in  the  title  ascribed  to  Jesus,  had  not 
yet  been  explicitly  apprehended  even  by  Jesus  Himself.  The  Son 
of  Man  walked  by  faith  and  not  by  sight :  hence,  at  the  beginning, 
He  was  inspired  by  the  ideal  of  God's  Reign;  but  He  had  not 
then  realized  the  terrible  cost  to  Himself  of  its  establishment.  It 
appears  that  the  first  Galilean  period  of  His  Ministry  had  been 
marked  by  gladness  and  hope,  and  the  people  had  seemed 
ready  to  respond  to  His  high  ideals.  Soon,  however,  the  Phari- 
sees and  Sadducees  perceived  that  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  there 
was  a  dangerous,  anarchic  principle  which  would  sooner  or  later 
subvert  and  shatter  their  own  order :  hence,  they  spurned  His 
claims  as  intangible  and  unrealizable  dreams.  The  Pharisees 
dogged  His  steps  with  jealous  vigilance,  angry  and  envious 
that  the  populace  should  be  attracted  by  His  gracious  speech  and 
many  miracles.  His  open  rupture  with  these  accredited  officials 
and  teachers  led  the  people  to  discredit  Him,  so  that  soon  after 
He  was  rejected  by  them  also.  Then  He  who  had  breathed  forth 
His  thought  of  the  Kingdom  in  idyllic  beatitudes  began  to  pour 


330  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

out  His  soul  in  the  lamentation  of  a  terrible  disappointment. 
In  this  mood  Jesus  had  gone  forth  as  an  exile  into  heathen 
territory;  there  He  faced  the  problem  of  His  failure,  and  sought 
not  only  to  instruct  His  disciples  concerning  the  way  of  sorrow, 
but  also  to  prepare  their  minds  for  the  shock  of  approaching 
disaster.  Jesus  did  not  underestimate  that  sleepless  hostility  of 
the  established  authorities ;  He  learned  that  the  hour  of  His 
triumph  must  be  preceded  by  one  of  doom.  God's  Love  had 
planned  man's  redemption;  man's  hate  invented  the  Cross;  but 
Jesus  foresaw  that  even  the  tragedy  of  Crucifixion  would  be 
instrumental  in  carrying  out  the  Divine  Purpose.  He  read  the 
meaning  of  His  Ministry  through  His  consciousness  of  the 
Heavenly  Father;  and  when  He  came  to  realize  the  necessity 
(  dsi)  of  the  passion.  His  heart  and  will  were  given  up  in 
self-dedication,  and  He  set  His  face  toward  Jerusalem. 

4.  Wieseler  interpreted  the  analepsis  to  mean  His  "  acceptance 
among  men  " ;  but  assuredly  the  term  is  pregnant  with  fuller 
significance  than  that :  the  minimum  of  meaning  we  descry  in  it 
is  an  allusion  to  Christ's  assumption  into  heavenly  blessedness. 
This  attempt,  on  St.  Luke's  part,  to  bring  the  self-dedicatory 
passages  of  our  Lord's  life  under  the  burning  focus  of  the  light 
of  a  climactic  and  glorious  denouement  is  due  not  merely  to  the 
historian's  backward  glance  over  the  perspective  of  the  past 
months,  but  also  to  the  foresight  and  prediction  of  Jesus.  His 
eyes  were  often  fixed  on  a  glory  that  lay  beyond  the  Cross ;  before 
He  had  evoked  the  disciples'  confession  of  His  Messiahship  at 
Caesarea  Philippi,  Jesus  had  begun  not  only  to  contemplate  the 
necessity  of  His  Passion,  but  also  to  view  it  as  a  means  to  an 
ulterior  end.  Thus  we  find  Him  maintaining  an  even  trust  in 
His  Father  in  the  darkest  passages  of  experience ;  and  repeatedly 
He  affirmed  that  failure  was  His  way  to  triumph.  Jesus  became 
too  intimate  with  the  world's  sin  and  sorrow  to  move  amid  scenes 
so  sad  with  a  light  heart.  One  of  the  practical  issues  of  His 
Ministry  was  to  make  Him  acquainted  with  the  inevitable  lot 
of  suffering;  but,  as  the  shadowing  presage  of  doom  fell  upon 
His  soul,  He  made  an  irrevocable  surrender  to  the  Father's  Will ; 
and  while  straitened  by  the  oppressive  sense  of  that  baptism  of 
blood.  He  passed  in  faith  to  a  strong,  clear  vision  of  His  ultimate 
victory.  Yet  while  the  foretaste  of  triumph  was  given  to  Him, 
Jesus  never  overlooked  the  dark  passage  which  led  to  the  goal; 


The  Days  of  His  Analepsis  331 

but,  knowing  that  death  could  but  prove  an  entrance  into  life, 
He  went  steadily  forward  without  allowing  Himself  to  be  para- 
lyzed by  morbid  fears.  Jesus  possessed  the  foresight  of  perfect 
faith.  Not  only  is  the  future  hidden  from  most  men,  but  because 
of  their  lack  of  faith  in  the  Father  they  suffer  ills  which  never 
come,  and  taste  many  times  over  the  bitter  pangs  of  death. 
Christ's  vaticinations  of  His  Resurrection  were  not  born  of 
superior  mental  perspicacity  merely;  nor  even  of  Divine  fore- 
knowledge, but  rather  of  His  absolute  faith  in  the  goodness  of 
the  Father.  The  prediction  of  His  Resurrection  is  too  easily 
explained  by  those  who  assume  that  Jesus  exercised  Divine  omnis- 
cience ;  while  the  difficulty  of  such  definite  anticipations  of  future 
events  is  enormous  in  the  eyes  of  those  who  would  reduce  Him 
to  the  stature  of  ordinary  men,  and  regard  such  sayings  as 
due  to  the  light  thrown  back  upon  the  half-remembered  words  of 
Jesus  from  the  Church's  later  faith.  There  are  two  doubts  which 
alternately  assail  the  mind:  the  one  a  common  doubt  today  of 
the  Divinity  of  Jesus,  and  the  other  a  profounder  doubt  of  His 
humanity.  "  As  soon  as  men  had  time  to  collect  their  thoughts 
about  Christ  and  begin  to  put  them  in  a  systematic  form,  they 
were  more  inclined  to  doubt  the  manhood  which  had  lived  among 
them  than  the  deity  they  had  spiritually  known."  ^  For  our- 
selves, we  know  but  one  safe  path  for  thought — the  resolute 
recognition  of  all  the  phenomena  of  Christ's  Ministry,  whether 
they  seem  so  human  as  to  hide  His  Divinity,  or  whether  they 
appear  to  pass  beyond  the  limits  of  man's  life.  It  ought  ever 
to  be  kept  in  mind,  however,  that  Jesus  was  not  only  human, 
but  more  human — more  perfectly  man  than  any  other  teacher  the 
world  has  ever  known.  It  is  we  ourselves  that  are  abnormal; 
He  is  the  true  norm.  And  being  man,  Jesus  could  not  escape 
the  incidence  of  pain  and  struggle,  but  through  suffering  and 
unswerving  obedience  to  the  Divine  Will  He  was  made  perfect. 
The  history  of  the  closing  weeks  of  His  Ministry  shows  that  His 
was  no  effortless  obedience ;  it  throws  also,  into  great  clearness, 
the  intensity  of  His  emotional  and  spiritual  life.  He  set  Himself 
to  accomplish  a  definite  mission — some  of  the  implication^  and 
issues  of  which  are  yet  to  be  considered  by  us — fixing  His 
face,  with  mighty  self-constraint,  toward  Jerusalem.  St.  Luke 
indicates  that  the  key  of  His  life  must  be  found  in  the  Ascension 
— those  weeks  of  suffering,  of  inward  struggle,  of  slow  martyr- 
^  Gwatkin,  The  Knowledge  of  God,  vol.  ii.,  p.  82. 


382  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

dom  were  to  be  understood  only   from  the  viewpoint  of  the 
analepsis. 

5.  One  of  the  characteristics  of  the  Four  Gospels  is  their 
inextricable  blending  of  elements  usually  assumed  to  be  incom- 
patible— the  Divine  with  the  human,  the  supernatural  with  the 
natural,  the  transcendent  with  the  mundane.  It  gives  no  shock 
of  surprise  to  the  reader,  therefore,  to  find  the  mysterious 
analepsis  of  Jesus  brought  into  close  connection  with  the  days 
of  Christ's  Passion;  to  find  the  anaplerosis  linked  together  with 
the  self-emptying  of  the  Son;  to  perceive  the  glorification  of 
Christ  set  forth  as  the  goal  of  the  humiliation.  We  pass,  without 
any  feeling  of  abruptness  from  St.  Luke's  anticipation  of  the 
Ascension,  to  the  historical  last  journey  of  the  Master  to  Jerusa- 
lem. The  route  from  Capernaum  to  Jericho  is  still  a  debated 
question.  "  He  departed  from  Galilee  and  came  into  the  coasts 
of  Judaea  beyond  Jordan."  ^  It  would  seem  that  Jesus  travelled 
eastward  along  the  boundaries  of  Galilee  and  Samaria;  avoiding 
all  entrance  into  Samaritan  territory,  He  reached  Peraea  and 
turned  southward.  There  occurred  an  incident  on  this  journey 
which  exhibited,  all  too  painfully,  the  ingratitude  of  those  who 
received  the  beneficent  healing  of  Jesus.^  A  company  of  ten 
lepers  met  Him  with  appeals  for  help,  and  when,  in  obedience 
to  His  command,  they  went  toward  Jerusalem  to  show  themselves 
to  the  priests,  they  discovered  in  themselves  a  new  movement  of 
health  and  recovery.  It  was  so  marvellous  a  case  of  healing  in  a 
disease  usually  obstinate  in  resisting  all  remedies,  that  it  appears 
all  the  more  surprising  that  any  lack  of  gratitude  should  have 
occurred.  Only  one  of  the  healed  men  returned,  a  Samaritan, 
and  "  magnifying  God  with  a  loud  voice,  he  fell  on  his  face, 
at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  giving  Him  thanks."  "  Were  the  ten  not 
made  clean?"  said  Jesus,  "Where  are  the  nine?  Is  there  no 
one  to  return  and  do  honour  to  God  except  this  foreigner  ?  Rise 
and  go:  thy  faith  hath  saved  thee." 

6.  As  we  saw,  Jesus  had  been  forced,  by  the  resolute  hos- 
tility of  His  enemies,  to  suspend  His  public  work  and  to  devote 
Himself  to  the  private  instruction  of  His  disciples ;  but  when  He 
came  into  the  regions  of  Peraea  He  felt  free  to  begin  to  teach 
openly  again.     This  resumption  of  His  public  work  appears  to 

*Matt.  xix.   I.  2  Luke  xvii.  11-19. 


The  Days  of  His  Analepsis  333 

have  occasioned  a  temporary  revival  of  His  popularity;  and 
resurgence  of  the  appreciation  of  Jesus  by  the  people  was  demon- 
strated in  the  crowds  which  accompanied  Him,  and  culminated 
shortly  in  His  triumphant  entry  into  Jerusalem.  His  former 
brief  visit  to  Peraea — interrupted,  as  we  think,  by  the  miracle 
at  Bethany — had  made  an  indelible  impression  upon  the  popu- 
lace ;  and  the  kind  of  reception  now  given  to  Him  may  be  inferred 
from  the  story  of  the  mothers  coming  to  Jesus  with  their  babes.^ 
He  had  evidently  impressed  them  as  the  Gracious  Son  of  Man. 
But  the  disciples,  deluded  once  again  with  false  hopes  of  the 
Messianic  Kingdom,  felt  that  their  Master  was  suffering  a  loss 
of  dignity,  and  under  the  impulse  of  worldly  ambitions  attempted 
to  repulse  the  women,  bringing  upon  themselves  the  rebuke  of 
their  Lord.  Perhaps  it  was  the  chivalrous  tenderness  shown 
toward  those  women  that  gave  some  Pharisees  the  occasion  they 
were  waiting  for  to  seek  to  entangle  Jesus  into  an  expression 
of  His  disregard  for  Jewish  laws.  "  Is  it  right,"  they  asked 
"  for  a  man  to  divorce  his  wife?  "  At  that  time  the  facility  of 
divorce  led  to  grave  results ;  for  a  mere  whim,  caprice,  or 
sensual  desire  was  frequently  made  the  ground  of  separation 
between  man  and  wife.  At  a  counter-interrogation,  the  Phar- 
isees quoted  the  Mosaic  law  ^  on  the  matter ;  then  Jesus  uttered 
His  original  dictum,  "  Moses  wrote  this  ordinance  with  a  view 
to  your  stubbornness  of  heart,"  ^  and  referred  back  to  the  law 
implicit  in  creation  as  against  any  dissolution  of  the  union  of 
man  and  wife.  In  speaking  thus  of  Moses,  Jesus  but  accepted 
the  contemporary  belief  about  the  authorship  of  the  Pentateuch. 
Later  on,  in  a  house  where  He  was  lodging.  He  said  to  His 
disciples, — "  Whosoever  shall  divorce  his  wife  .  .  .  and  marry 
another,  commits  adultery."  The  exception  made  in  the  case  of 
fornication  may  have  been  spoken  by  Jesus,  but  it  was  not  His 
habit  to  qualify  His  bold,  original  and  arresting  statements  by 
specifying  exceptions.  Justice  demands  that  if  fornication  be 
made  a  ground  of  divorce,  the  same  law  should  be  applicable 
to  the  husband  as  to  the  wife.  Jesus  did  not  intend  to  bind 
men  with  particular  rules ;  He  laid  down  principles  which  may 
be  interpreted  and  applied  with  exactitude  only  where  His  own 
Spirit  dwells.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  may  be  that  separation 
would  often  be  preferable  to  a  union  that  prolongs  misery  and 

^  Luke  xviii.  15-17.  '  Deut.  xxiv.  I. 

2  Matt.  xix.  3-12;   Luke  xvi.  18. 


334  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

urges  mutual  provocation.  Jesus  showed  superb  courage  and 
freedom  in  thus  teaching  that  the  external,  Mosaic  code  was  but 
a  temporary,  provisional  economy  corresponding  to  the  imperfect 
stage  of  man's  moral  development.  His  aim  was  to  emancipate 
the  conscience  from  laws  which  had  been  made  intolerable  by 
subtle  refinements  and  sophistical  additions.  With  simple  direct- 
ness He  penetrated  to  the  core  of  legalism  and  enunciated  a 
few  rational  principles  for  human  guidance;  for  He  had  per- 
ceived that  the  gossamer  threads  of  Pharisaic  sophistry  were 
more  enslaving  to  the  soul  than  outward  chains.  Not  long 
before,  it  is  true,  Jesus  had  shown  His  respect  for  Judaism  by 
sending  the  lepers  to  the  priests  to  perform  the  legal  rights  of 
cleansing;  now,  with  unprecedented  boldness  He  waived  the 
Mosaic  legislation  and  annulled  the  binding  power  of  ancient 
Judaism.  Jesus  was  too  great  to  be  concerned  about  a  super- 
ficial consistency.  He  felt  that  it  was  necessary  to  destroy  the 
outward  bondage  of  the  letter,  in  order  that  the  conscience  should 
be  ruled  by  higher  principles.  He  was  the  Messiah  of  a  New 
Covenant — ^the  Teacher  of  a  law  written  upon  the  fleshly  tablets 
of  the  human  heart.  But  in  teaching  that  the  whole  dispensation 
of  the  law  was  but  a  parenthesis  in  an  evangelic  theodicy,  He 
was  oflfending  the  whole  established  order  of  Judaism,  and  thus 
advanced  another  step  in  His  self-dedication  to  the  Cross  in  the 
days  of  His  anal ep sis. 

7.  During  these  days  of  the  transient  revival  of  His  popular- 
ity, when  the  disciples  were  once  more  encouraged  to  hope  for 
the  attainment  of  political  power,  there  came  an  opportunity  of 
winning  a  wealthy  and  influential  adherent  to  their  movement, 
who,  had  Jesus  chosen,  might  have  done  much  to  turn  aside  the 
opposition  of  the  established  authorities.^  A  rich  man  knelt  with 
every  token  of  reverence  before  Jesus,  and  asked,  "  Good  Teacher, 
what  shall  I  do  to  inherit  eternal  life?"  To  the  surprise  of 
all,  Jesus  seemed  to  repel  the  conventional  title — seeking,  we 
suppose,  to  turn  back  the  man's  mind  to  reflect  more  profoundly 
on  his  own  ideal  of  moral  good.  The  reference  to  the  Decalogue, 
as  the  way  of  eternal  life,  was  characteristic  of  Jesus'  way  of 
meeting  man  at  some  point  of  his  personal  knowledge  and  ex- 
perience. With  self-complacency  the  inquirer  made  the  super- 
ficial yet  ingenuous  boast  that  he  had  kept  these  laws  from  his 
*  Luke  xviii.   18-30;    Matt.  xix.  16-29;    Mark  x.   17-30. 


The  Days  of  His  Analepsis  335 

youth.  Attracted  by  the  man's  evident  sincerity,  Jesus  defined 
the  moral  ideal  as  perfect  love,  and  instructed  him  to  sell  all 
his  property,  and  to  distribute  the  proceeds  among  the  poor; 
then  to  take  up  the  Cross  and  follow  Him.  The  mind  of  Jesus 
was  still  preoccupied  with  the  thought  of  His  approaching  doom, 
which  could  not  be  evaded  if  He  went  on  to  Jerusalem,  and 
He  calls  this  candidate  for  discipleship  to  share  His  own  fate. 
At  this  reply  the  man's  face  fell;  he  was  disappointed  and  went 
away  with  a  heavy  heart,  not  being  able  to  make  such  absolute 
renunciation.  The  Twelve  may  have  shown,  by  their  looks,  that 
they  thought  the  Master  had  thrown  away  a  great  opportunity 
through  want  of  tact;  and  Jesus,  looking  round  on  them,  ex- 
claimed, "  How  hard  it  is  for  those  who  have  property  to  enter 
into  the  Reign  of  God !  "  Seeing  that  His  disciples  failed  to 
comprehend.  He  added,  *'  How  hard  it  is  for  those  who  put  their 
trust  in  riches  to  enter  into  the  Reign  of  God !  "  Poverty  itself 
can  be  no  prize;  its  value  lies  in  its  power  to  beget  dependence 
upon  God  and  to  engender  a  lowliness  of  temper  in  intercourse 
with  men.  Wealth  is  dangerous  in  its  seductions  to  trust  in 
outward  things.  Most  men  are  betrayed  by  false  values;  but 
the  mind  of  Jesus  searched  to  the  heart  of  all  possessions  with 
unrivalled  clarity  and  penetration.  All  who  follow  Him  will  lose 
their  pathetic  illusions  about  the  worth  of  wealth,  and  will  come 
to  learn  that  the  poor  can  enjoy  God  all  the  better  for  being 
unhampered  and  unhindered  by  outward  possessions. 

8.  The  first  feeling  of  disappointment  speedily  gave  place  in 
Simon's  breast  to  a  self-righteous  boast,  "  Lo,  we  have  left  all 
and  followed  Thee."  Said  Jesus,  "  I  tell  you  truly,  there  is  no 
man  who  leaves  house,  or  brothers,  or  sisters,  or  mother,  or 
father,  or  children,  or  lands  for  My  sake  and  for  the  gospel's 
sake,  without  receiving  a  hundredfold  now  in  this  time,  houses, 
and  brothers,  and  sisters,  and  mothers,  and  children,  and  lands, 
with  persecutions ;  and  in  the  age  to  come  life  eternal.  But  many 
who  are  first  shall  be  last,  and  the  last  first."  In  St.  Matthew's 
gospel,  Peter  is  represented  as  asking  pointedly  what  reward  the 
disciples  will  have,  and  Christ's  answer  is  cast  into  the  mould 
of  the  popular  Messianic  hope.  This  is  followed  ^  by  the  parable 
of  the  Vineyard,  in  which  the  labourers  all  receive  one  wage  of 
a  denarius,  irrespective  of  the  hours  of  their  employment.    Thus 

'Matt.  XX.  1-16. 


336  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

Jesus  taught  that  men  cannot  trade  and  barter  with  God,  nor 
insult  the  Sovereignty  of  His  Love  by  envying  ihe  well-being  of 
others.  Men  ought  not  to  reckon  their  services  for  God  on  a 
commercial  basis,  as  though  they  were  hirelings.  The  upspring- 
ing  of  this  hope  of  earthly  rewards  contrasted  with  His  own 
Spirit  of  self-sacrifice;  and  from  His  words  we  judge  that 
Simon's  question  jarred  upon  His  own  mood  of  self-dedication. 
Still,  Jesus  was  too  magnanimous  to  allow  the  wound  in  His 
own  heart  to  obscure  His  recognition  of  the  sacrifices  made 
by  the  disciples :  hence,  He  combined  with  His  warning  against 
commercial  religion  a  promise  of  magnificent  reward  for  genuine 
fidelity  to  His  cause.  In  following  Him  the  spiritual  gains  out- 
weigh all  losses ;  poverty  is  transmuted  to  spiritual  wealth,  perse- 
cution to  blessedness,  and  the  loss  of  friendships  is  recompensed 
with  new  relationships,  even  while  His  disciples  sufifer  persecu- 
tions. On  the  way  to  the  Cross,  Jesus  encouraged  His  disciples 
with  promises  of  limitless  bliss ;  and  as  He  sets  His  face  toward 
Jerusalem  He  dispenses  thrones  and  gifts  as  a  conqueror;  but 
the  "  thrones  "  in  His  Mind  were  symbolic  of  spiritual  sway,  and 
not  of  material  splendour.  Here  again  the  radiance  of  the 
analepsis  fell  on  the  via  dolorosa. 

9.  Through  the  reminiscences  of  this  last  journey  toward  the 
City  of  Doom,  there  runs  one  unifying  hope  of  the  Resurrection 
and  of  His  assumption  into  some  glorious  life  of  the  Spirit. 
Living  right  in  the  midst  of  those  experiences,  the  disciples  were 
but  dimly  aware  of  the  true  trend  of  His  Ministry;  but  when 
at  last  they  witnessed  His  Ascension,  they  perceived  the  real 
synopsis  of  the  past  three  years.  H  we  take  away  the  crowning 
event  of  the  Resurrection,  then  the  Cross  is  shorn  of  its  glory, 
and  stands  amid  the  hopeless  ruins  of  history  as  the  dread 
symbol  of  defeat.  The  analepsis  transfigures  the  gloom  and  ex- 
plains the  Divine  telos  of  the  whole.  The  set  face  of  Jesus, 
turned  so  resolutely  toward  Jerusalem,  is  lighted  with  the  tri- 
umphant energy  of  invincible  hope.  Apart  from  this  vision  of 
the  goal,  the  events  of  His  life  appear  chaotic  and  confusing,  and 
His  conduct  and  words  become  tinged  with  a  semblance  of 
"  subtlety  and  finesse."  Illusive  as  were  the  dreams  of  the  King- 
dom which  dominated  the  Mind  of  Jesus  in  His  early  Galilean 
ministry,  they  exercised  an  educative  influence  upon  Him  and 
led  Him  through  suflfering  to  perfection.     Delusions  end  in  dis- 


The  Days  of  His  Analepsis  837 

appointment;  but  illusions  find  a  fulfilment  more  profound  than 
at  first  anticipated.  Jesus'  first  illusive  hope  of  the  Kingdom 
passed  into  the  clarified  vision  of  a  nobler  triumph.  The  suffer- 
ing He  realized  acquired  the  significance  of  spiritual  sacrifice, 
and  "  He  has  linked  it  with  the  laws  of  the  universe  and  with 
the  Invisible  Mind  of  God."  If  for  a  moment  His  ideal  were 
submerged  amid  the  clash  of  hostile  wills,  it  was  soon  lifted 
up  again  in  a  glorious  realization,  so  that  all  the  world  might  see. 
The  analepsis  terminated  the  earthly  ministry,  and  inaugurated 
the  Messiah's  Heavenly  session;  to  this  point  all  the  lines  of 
past  history  converge,  and  from  this  focus  springs  the  noblest 
inspiration  for  the  future. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  MINISTRY  OF  RANSOM 

I.  However  slowly  the  Messiah  pursued  His  journey  toward 
the  capital,  He  had  long  since  determined  to  face  His  enemies 
and  endure  the  utmost  suffering  the  leaders  of  the  nation  might 
devise.  Sustained  by  this  unwavering  resolution,  the  prevailing 
mood  of  Jesus  was  one  of  ecstasy  and  moral  exaltation,  clashing 
painfully  with  the  earth-born  aims  of  the  disciples.  As  they 
walked  along  the  road,  the  aloofness  of  Jesus  from  His  com- 
panions was  perceptible  in  the  feelings  of  constraint  and  dis- 
satisfaction. He  was  absorbed  in  His  contemplation  of  the 
Cross,  while  they  were  preoccupied  with  the  thought  of  earthly 
thrones.  The  expression  of  set  determination  in  the  Master's 
face  amazed  the  Twelve;  they  could  not  understand  Hirn,  but 
followed  with  fear.  Such,  at  least,  is  St.  Mark's  graphic  de- 
scription of  the  occasion :  "  Now,"  says  the  Evangelist,  "  they 
were  on  the  road  going  up  to  Jerusalem,  and  Jesus  went  in  front 
of  them.  And  they  were  in  dismay,  while  some  who  followed 
were  in  fear."  ^  They  vaguely  felt  that  something  in  His  mood, 
which  was  betokened  in  His  look  and  demeanour,  menaced  their 
ambitions  and  endangered  all  their  hopes.  They  were  but  un- 
comfortable companions  for  Jesus  then,  and,  as  a  mental  aliena- 
tion between  Himself  and  them  pressed  upon  Him,  they  fell 
behind  Him  as  men  overawed.  It  was  as  though  they  divined, 
in  His  rapt  ecstasy  and  solemn  carriage,  a  mysterious,  prophetic 
activity  which  lifted  Him  away  from  His  human  associates. 
The  imagination  of  Jesus  was  surcharged  with  momentous 
realities  of  the  Spirit,  while  the  disciples  were  chained  to  the  work 
of  the  senses ;  they  grovelled  still  in  the  materialism  of  their  age. 
But  presently  the  lonely  Messiah  was  oppressed  by  the  strained 
relations  between  Himself  and  the  men  He  loved,  and  He  sought 
to  convey  to  them  something  of  His  own  high  thoughts.  He 
"  took  the  Twelve  aside  privately  "  *  and  told  them  once  again 
of  the  death  which  lay  before  Him,  adding  fresh  details  to  the 

*  Mark  x.  32-34.  "  MaU.  xx.  IZ-19. 

338 


The  Ministry  of  Ransom  839 

repeated  prediction :  "  Lo,  we  are  going  up  to  Jerusalem ;  and 
the  Son  of  Man  shall  be  delivered  to  the  high-priests  and  scribes. 
They  shall  sentence  Him  to  death  and  deliver  Him  to  the  Gentiles 
to  mock  and  scourge  and  crucify.  Yet  on  the  third  day,  He 
shall  rise  again."  The  definiteness,  minutiae  and  precision  of  this 
prophecy  will  impress  many  minds  with  a  natural  doubt  whether 
such  a  saying  can  be  attributed  to  Jesus  at  all.  H  it  be  taken 
for  granted  that  such  prediction  is  an  a  priori  impossibility,  then 
we  must  deem  the  evangelists  guilty  of  a  wrong  artifice  in 
graduating  the  disclosures  of  the  Passion  attributed  to  Jesus. 
There  is  such  verisimilitude  in  the  advance  from  vague  presenti- 
ment to  definite  prediction,  from  the  bare  affirmation  of  inevitable 
suffering  to  the  full  forecast  of  all  the  details  of  His  doom,  that 
if  the  anticipations  be  not  regarded  as  veritably  spoken  by  Jesus, 
they  will  assuredly  be  interpreted  as  culpable  misrepresentations. 
Personally,  we  accept  the  historicity  of  these  graduated  vaticina- 
tions of  the  end,  and  we  believe  that  the  Master  Himself  re- 
iterated His  predictions  with  greater  detail  and  fulness  at  the  sev- 
eral crises  of  His  self-dedication.  The  phenomena  of  the  Old 
Testament  will  not  allow  us  to  strip  the  prophets  of  all  predictive 
foresight;  although  not  their  chief  or  sole  function,  it  is 
irrefutable  that  those  inspired  men  were  often  seers  of  future 
events.  And  this  extraordinary  gift  belonged  to  Jesus;  He  was 
pneumatically  sensitive  both  to  the  current  events  and  to  the 
inevitable  developments  of  the  movements  of  His  time;  He  fore- 
saw and,  we  believe,  foretold  with  detailed  accuracy,  the  issues 
of  His  personal  ministry,  judging  all  things  in  the  light  of  His 
goal. 

2.  The  spasmodic  revival  of  His  popularity  in  Peraea  did  not 
deceive  Jesus,  although  it  misled  the  disciples;  in  the  heat  of 
the  excitement  the  Messiah  was  not  once  diverted  from  His 
resolute  pursuit  of  self-sacrifice.  Had  He  been  as  other  men 
and  drawn  His  incentives  from  selfish  ambition.  He  would  have 
sought  to  retain  the  good-will  of  the  people,  even  at  the  cost 
of  compromise,  as  the  means  of  a  more  facile  founding  ot  His 
Kingdom.  The  disciples  were  disappointed  again  and  again  that 
Jesus  was  so  unworldly  and  unpractical  that  He  allowed  such 
opportunities  of  confirming  His  moral  influence  over  men  to 
slip  away  unused.  It  may  be  frankly  assumed  that  most  teachers 
desirous  of  founding  a  new  order  would  have  readily  accepted 


340  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

advances  made  by  representatives  of  the  professional  classes; 
but  Jesus,  as  the  Gospels  show,  repelled  the  learned,  wealthy  and 
influential  men  of  His  nation  by  harsh  demands  of  renunciation. 
Such  absolute  fidelity  to  an  ideal  seems  too  impracticable  for 
this  world  of  compromise;  it  was,  consequently,  inevitable  that 
Jesus  should  fail  and  become  the  martyr  of  His  faith.  This 
Messiah  may  be  truly  described  as  the  conscience  of  Humanity ; 
He  was  tremulously  sensitive  to  all  the  infidelities  and  sins  of 
men ;  therefore  to  Himself  He  must  be  true,  whatever  the  cost 
might  be.  Having  preached  His  lofty  idealism  to  others,  He 
dared  not  deviate  from  His  own  standard  of  faith.  He  lived 
the  faith  He  taught;  His  own  pure  ideal  was  made  incarnate; 
and,  by  this  very  contrast,  He  condemned  the  selfishness  of  men. 
Thus,  we  have  come  to  a  point  in  the  Ministry  of  Jesus  when, 
to  understand  His  own  profound  sayings  concerning  His  suffering 
and  sacrifice,  we  must  enter  imaginatively  into  the  mind  of  Jesus, 
recalling  His  claim  to  autonomy,  even  while  He  submitted  to 
outward  and  physical  violence.  The  mere  incident  of  bodily  pain 
was  the  least  part  of  the  Passion  of  Jesus ;  His  most  real  angujsh 
sprang  from  His  quivering  consciousness  of  the  world's  wrong. 

3.  Other  men  might  interpret  the  Crucifixion  as  the  igno- 
minious failure  of  religious  idealism,  but  Jesus  made  such  defeat 
itself  the  instrument  of  executing  His  purpose  in  the  world. 
The  dark  shadow  of  the  Cross  which  fell  on  His  pathway  never 
once  made  Him  waver,  or  wish  to  turn  back.  He  trusted  too 
fully  in  the  Heavenly  Father  to  doubt  the  issue  of  obedience  to 
the  Divine  Will,  even  when  death  itself  confronted  Him.  This 
personal  faith  in  God's  justice  grew  into  a  definite  assurance 
that  the  Father  would  not  leave  the  Son  in  Hades,  But  it  must 
not  be  imagined  that  this  moral  certitude  saved  Him  from  the 
fluctuations  of  emotion  and  trials  of  will.  For  instance,  the  good 
conscience  He  kept  before  His  Father  was  itself  a  cause  of  offence 
to  the  disciples  He  loved  so  profoundly,  and  became  an  occasion 
of  mutual  misunderstanding.  The  clash  of  antagonistic  ideals 
made  this  misunderstanding  an  unescapable  issue.  On  the  one 
hand,  Jesus  Himself  found  the  mirror  of  His  own  history  in  the 
fate  of  the  gentle,  strong  martyr  of  the  deutero-Isaiah's  prophecy. 
There  He  learned  that  "  it  pleased  the  Lord  to  bruise  Him  " : 
hence,  He  faced  the  approaching  tragedy  with  a  deliberate, 
calm  dignity  and  resolute  self-immolation.     On  the  other  hand, 


The  Ministry  of  Ransom  341 

the  disciples  shared  the  popular  prepossessions  of  the  Messiah's 
Davidic  revival  of  political  and  military  conquest:  hence,  they 
looked  for  a  time  when  Jesus  should  be  King  and  execute  judge- 
ment on  the  earth.  But  such  hopes  as  these,  which  had  sprung 
first  from  the  sentiment  of  patriotism,  and  which  the  great 
prophets  had  raised  into  a  moral  ideal  for  the  nation,  were 
illusory ;  for  at  this  time,  although  Jesus  accepted  the  confession 
of  Messiahship,  He  looked  forward  to  a  public  and  dreadful 
death,  knowing  that  already  the  national  authorities  had  de- 
termined to  deliver  Him  to  the  Romans.  But  this  foreseen  fate 
was  not  looked  upon  by  Jesus  Himself  as  a  mere  misfortune, 
or  evil  chance  arising  from  an  uncontrolled  conflict  of  world- 
forces,  but  as  a  sacrifice  made  necessary  on  moral  grounds  and 
integrated  into  the  Divine  and  providential  order  of  history,  and 
destined  to  become  the  focus  of  a  new  Christian  Weltansicht. 
In  seeking  to  understand  the  attitude  and  Mind  of  Jesus  in  view 
of  His  swift-coming  doom,  it  is  needful  that  His  personal  re- 
ligious consciousness  and  ethical  principles  shall  be  remembered, 
since  these  constituted  the  media  through  which  He  himself 
interpreted  the  events  of  life.  First,  therefore,  His  prevision 
of  death  must  be  brought  into  connection  with  His  consciousness 
of  the  Heavenly  Father ;  then  it  must  be  related  to  His  spiritual 
interpretation  of  God's  Reign  as  realizable  in  the  inward,  moral 
life  of  the  good  man;  thirdly,  it  must  not  be  overlooked  that 
to  the  Mind  of  Jesus  physical  death  was  as  a  sleep  and  an 
introduction  into  fuller  life.  Hence  it  came  about  that  His 
voluntary  acceptance  of  His  death  focused  into  one  concentrated 
blaze  of  splendid  light  all  the  ideas  and  emotions  cherished  in 
the  Ministry  of  Jesus.  His  sacrifice  gave  new  accentuation  and 
meaning  to  the  doctrines  taught  by  Him.  So  much,  at  least, 
may  be  acknowledged  alike  by  those  who  in  theological  matters 
are  conservative  and  those  who  represent  the  advanced  school 
of  liberalism. 

4.  As  Jesus  uttered  His  clear,  distinct  prediction  of  swift- 
approaching  doom  on  this  last  journey,  the  disciples  deemed 
Him  to  be  the  victim  of  a  dreadful  hallucination.  The  light  He 
offered  was  as  darkness  to  men  who  were  still  morally  unpre- 
pared: hence.  His  words  made  so  adequate  impression  corre- 
spondent with  their  momentous  meaning.  To  the  eyes  of  chil- 
dren the  stars  are  simply  points  of  light  pricked  out  on  the 


342  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

plane-surface  of  the  sky,  though  by-and-by  they  will  understand 
them  to  be  mighty  worlds  moving  through  illimitable  space. 
And  yet  it  cannot  but  appear  strange,  and  to  many  incomprehensi- 
ble, that  after  companying  with  the  Master  so  long,  those  dis- 
ciples could  remain  almost  to  the  end  free  from  all  presentiments 
of  coming  disaster.  An  instance  of  their  obsession  and  conse- 
quent imperviousness  to  the  clearest  forecast  is  afforded  by  the 
ambitious  sons  of  Zebedee,  or  by  their  mother,  who  sought  to 
secure  from  Jesus  a  promise  of  future  remembrance  and  par- 
ticular favour.  According  to  St.  Matthew,^  the  mother  came  to 
Jesus  with  the  request,  "  Say  that  these  my  sons  shall  sit  one 
on  Thy  right  hand,  and  one  on  Thy  left  hand  in  Thy  reign." 
These  ideas  of  a  materialistic  Messianism  clung  to  the  disciples 
like  the  famous  robe  smeared  with  the  curdled  blood  of  Nessus, 
and  poisoned  all  their  thoughts  of  Jesus.  Yet  such  irrepressible 
hopes  of  a  temporal  restitution  of  Israel  increase  the  marvel  of 
the  personal  spell  of  Jesus,  that  in  spite  of  these  preconceptions 
which  ruled  the  disciples,  when  confronted  by  the  hostility  of 
the  authorized  representatives  of  Judaism,  He  could  yet  win 
their  faith  that  He  was  the  Messiah.  Hitherto,  James  and  John 
had  shared  with  Simon  the  closest  intimacy  with  Jesus,  and 
the  intervention  of  Salome,  who  appears  to  have  been  a  sister 
of  the  mother  of  Jesus,  savours  too  much  of  intrigue.  If  the 
mother  voiced  their  petition,  the  answer  of  Jesus  was  directed 
to  the  two  disciples :  "  You  know  not  what  you  are  asking.  Are 
you  able  to  drink  the  cup  that  I  am  to  drink?  or  to  be  baptized 
with  the  baptism  that  I  am  baptized  with?"  And  they  say  to 
Him,  "  We  are  able."    Jesus  said, 

"  The  cup  that  I  drink,  you  shall  drink: 
And  the  baptism  that  I  am  baptized  with,  shall  you  be  baptized  with. 
But  to  sit  on  My  right  hand  or  on  My  left  hand  is  not  Mine  to  grant; 
It  is  for  those  for  whom  it  has  been  made  ready." 

At  that  time  Jesus  would  fain  have  had  His  disciples  think  of 
suffering  rather  than  of  triumph,  and  He  recalled  to  their  minds 
His  oft-reiterated  teaching  about  cross-bearing  and  dying,  con- 
necting His  own  experience  with  what  they  also  must  pass 
through — a  coordination  that  should  not  be  lost  when  we  recog- 
nize the  transcendent  merit  of  the  sacrifice  of  Jesus.  The  self- 
confident  assertion   that  they  were  able  to  endure  all  things, 

'  Matt.  XX.  2of. 


The  Ministry  of  Ransom  34.3 

suggests  to  us  that  they  spoke  with  the  overweening  assurance 
and  defective  understanding  of  children  knowing  not  the  mean- 
ing of  the  "  cup  "  and  the  "  baptism."  Although  Jesus  declares 
that  the  offices  and  rewards  of  His  reign  are  distributed  by- 
Divine  predestination,  we  feel  that  His  thoughts  are  altogether 
remote  from  theirs.  In  this  disclaimer  of  the  prerogative  to 
grant  royal  favours  from  Himself,  we  perceive  His  consistent 
lowliness,  which  was  always  linked  with  His  conscious  dignity, 
and  trace  the  unswerving  continuance  of  a  surrendered  will. 

5.  When  the  other  disciples  learned  of  this  somewhat  un- 
scrupulous attempt  to  over-reach  themselves  by  wresting  a  secret 
promise  from  the  Master,  they  were  naturally  indignant.  The 
dispute  which  followed  was  terminated  for  the  time  by  the 
declaration  of  Jesus,  that  greatness  in  God's  Reign  must  be 
determined  by  the  measure  of  service  men  render — a  standard 
diametrically  opposed  to  the  despotism  of  earthly  kings.  "  But 
whoever  would  become  great  among  you  must  be  your  servant, 
and  whoever  would  be  first  among  you,  must  be  slave  of  all. 
For  even  the  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be  served,  but  to  serve, 
and  to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for  many."  This  is  the  rule  of 
Jesus,  and  however  harmonious  it  may  be  with  the  higher  reason 
in  man,  it  is  in  contradiction  to  all  the  ordinary  impulses  and 
desires  for  self-aggrandizement.  Such  words  are  admitted  to 
possess  an  indisputable  originality  and  to  reflect  the  lofty  mind 
of  the  Speaker,  but  generally  they  are  treated  as  inapplicable 
to  the  affairs  of  this  world.  No  laboured  argument  is  required 
to  convince  men  that  this  rule  does  not  obtain  in  our  modern 
civilization — not  even  in  the  Christian  churches ;  nor  can  we,  by 
any  sophistry,  bring  the  ordinary  behaviour  of  men  into  line 
with  this  teaching.  Its  applicability  depended  upon  the  power  of 
Jesus  to  breathe  a  new  temper  into  the  hearts  of  His  disciples — 
a  spirit  which  would  slay  all  ambitions  save  that  of  rendering 
service  to  others.  Only  in  so  far  as  our  natural  tempers  are 
subdued  by  the  gracious  influence  of  Jesus,  will  this  rule  be 
observed  in  the  conduct  of  life.  Some  of  Dora  Greenwell's 
thoughtful  reflections  concerning  a  life-giving  supernaturalism 
seem  to  us  to  express  this  truth  with  great  lucidity  and  force : 
"  Christianity,"  she  says,  "  is  supernatural  alike  in  what  it  gives 
and  what  it  claims ;  it  begins  and  ends  in  miracle.  The  Christian 
life,  for  instance,  appears  a  very  simple  one;  yet  it  is  in  truth 


344  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

an  impossible  one,  as  the  humblest  Christian  knows,  except  under 
the  conditions  of  supernatural  life  and  supernatural  aid."  Again, 
"  Our  blessed  Lord's  deep  sayings,  His  mighty  and  merciful 
deeds,  seem  natural,  and  just  what  belongs  to  the  occasion, 
and  yet  everything  in  these  writings  transcends  the  accustomed 
level  of  humanity.  I  say  everything,  for  the  raising  of  Lazarus 
and  the  turning  of  water  into  wine  are  as  possible  to  the  natural 
powers  of  man,  as  much  within  his  unaided  reach,  as  is  the 
morality  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  or  the  pure,  fervent 
charity  of  the  Epistles."  This  devout  writer  likens  the  New 
Testament  to  a  mountain  region,  where  the  common  objects  are 
transfigured  and  where  a  sense  of  remoteness  is  linked  with  an 
instinct  of  familiarity :  "  Through  all  I  have  a  sense  of  something 
which  is  foreign  to  the  present  order  of  life,  foreign  to  it  and 
yet  friendly,  as  if  it  belonged  to  some  region  towards  which 
man  is  travelling,  but  at  which  he  has  not  yet  arrived."  ^ 

6.  This  logion  about  the  ransom-service  is  self-evidently 
genuine ;  no  one  but  Jesus  could  have  uttered  it.  The  importance 
and  value  of  this  saying,  in  treating  of  the  inward  consciousness 
and  purpose  of  the  Ministry  of  Jesus,  cannot  be  exceeded;  it 
sums  up  the  motives  and  aims  of  His  life  and  explains  His 
voluntary  acceptance  of  death.  All  that  is  known  about  Jesus 
demonstrates  the  fact  that  He  spent  Himself  wholly  in  the  service 
of  humanity.  The  giving  up  of  His  life  was  a  continuing  process, 
and  not  simply  a  single  incident;  a  ministry  of  self-sacrifice 
was  perfected  and  crowned  in  His  act  of  final  surrender.  In 
the  course  of  this  attempt  to  depict  the  manifold  aspects  of 
His  life  we  have  alluded  again  and  again  to  the  gracious  beauty 
of  the  Personal  Religion  of  Jesus ;  but  this  saying  of  His  now 
carries  the  thought  beyond  His  human  piety  to  His  conscious 
performance  of  mighty  spiritual  action  on  behalf  of  mankind. 
The  germ  of  Pauline  Christianity  is  in  this  single  saying.  The 
cultivation  of  a  devout  life,  of  His  own  ethical  and  religious 
ideas,  was  but  a  small  part  of  the  mission  of  Jesus ;  from  the 
beginning  at  the  Jordan-side  until  this  last  journey  to  Jerusalem, 
He  had  given  the  service  of  His  life,  and  now  He  is  preparing 
to  give  His  life  in  the  service  of  a  ransom.  Thus  He  Himself 
attributed  to  His  death  an  efficacy  not  found  in  life;  in  His 
awn  thought  it  appeared  as  a  sacrifice  which,  if  we  may  use 
*  Two  Friends,  pp.  131,  132. 


The  Ministry  of  Ransom  845 

St  Paul's  terms,  had  the  value  of  propitiation.  This  remarkable 
word,  "  ransom,"  said  to  have  been  used  by  Jesus,  ought  not  to 
be  treated  as  though  it  were  spoken  by  a  scientific  theologian; 
it  is  poetry — a  metaphor  struck  from  the  mind  at  white  heat. 
The  language  of  Jesus  lives  and  burns;  His  words  are  winged 
with  imagination ;  but  it  must  never  be  supposed  that  His  actual 
meaning  was  narrower  than  His  impressive  speech.  Jesus  had 
been  thinking  of  the  various  modes  of  service  which  may  be 
Tendered  by  members  of  His  Kingdom ;  then,  by  a  natural  transi- 
tion, He  passes  to  the  thought  of  His  sufferings  and  death,  affirm- 
ing that  the  Messiah's  greatest  service  to  the  race  lies  in  His 
giving  His  life  as  a  ransom,  that  by  this  service  "  many  "  will 
be  delivered.  Jesus  had  learnt  the  mysterious  secret  of  His- 
tory, that  the  world's  true  advancement  is  secured  by  suffering, 
pain  and  sacrifice.  Although  we  avoid  the  pedantic  aim  of 
extracting  every  possible  meaning  from  our  Lord's  metaphor, 
we  dare  not  follow  the  reaction  which  denies  all  serious  meaning 
to  it;  at  least,  it  must  be  admitted  that  Jesus  attributed  to  His 
death  an  efficacy  to  release  men  from  inward  bondage.  We  do 
not  now  discuss  whether  the  emancipating  force  of  His  sacrifice 
is  due  to  moral  influence  or  to  some  profounder  action  inex- 
plicable apart  from  mysticism;  our  emphasis  falls  rather  on 
the  authenticity  of  the  word  "  ransom,"  and  its  implication  that 
the  Truth  which  should  make  men  free  was  made  known  in  Jesus' 
death.  Had  not  Caiaphas  said  "  it  was  expedient  for  one  man 
to  die  for  the  nation  "  ?  Jesus  now  takes  up  the  word  of  cynic- 
ism and  breathes  into  it  this  great  idea  of  ransom;  He  would 
not  only  die  for  men,  but  He  would  set  them  free  to  realize  the 
Reign  of  God. 

7.  Jesus  Himself  pointed  out  that  an  analogy  existed  between 
the  "  ransom  "  He  would  offer  and  the  sacrificing  service  de- 
manded from  His  disciples.  They  had  hitherto  thought  chiefly 
of  a  kingdom  of  rewards,  while  He  had  instructed  them  con- 
cerning a  Reign  of  altruism.  His  own  anticipation  of  crucifixion 
leads  Him  to  inculcate  the  duty  of  cross-bearing  upon  ihem. 
Since  Jesus  laid  such  emphasis  upon  the  affinity  between  His 
own  experience  and  theirs,  we  ought  not  to  hesitate  to  recognize 
at  least  a  partial  reproduction  of  His  martyrdom  in  the  lives  of 
His  followers.  This  analogy  should  be  fearlessly  exploited,  in 
all  its  length,  breadth  and  depth,  by  those  who  seek  the  meaning 


346  Self-Dedication  unto  Death 

of  the  ransom  made  by  Jesus.  The  Master  promised  that  His 
disciples  should  be  taken  up  into  the  fellowship  of  His  sufferings : 
"  The  cup  that  I  drink,  you  shall  drink,  and  the  baptism  that  I 
am  baptized  with,  shall  you  be  baptized  with."  The  fact  that 
we  find  in  human  experience  not  a  few  instances  of  the  purifying 
and  ennobling  influences  of  pain;  that  we  often  meet  notable 
examples  of  vicarious  suffering  and  sin-bearing,  and  that  civiliza- 
tion and  individual  character  are  alike  improved  by  self-denial 
and  sacrifice,  helps  us  to  apprehend  some  of  the  experiences 
of  Jesus.  But  when  we  have  frankly  acknowledged  this  analogy, 
we  are  further  impelled  to  reflect  upon  differences  and  contrasts 
between  the  ordinary  passages  of  human  life  and  the  Passion 
of  Jesus.  Though  He  Himself  might  lawfully  speak  of  the 
Crosses  of  the  disciples,  still  even  the  martyrs  themselves  have 
shrunk  from  describing  their  death  as  a  "  ransom."  And  while 
we  render  the  amplest  recognition  of  Christ's  own  stress  upon 
the  fact  that  He  is  one  with  our  race  in  its  emotions  and 
activities,  we  must  also  own  that,  in  the  preeminence  of  His 
sorrow  and  supreme  value  of  His  death,  Jesus  stands  alone. 
"  The  blood  of  the  martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the  Church  " ;  but 
neither  Tertullian  nor  any  other  has  dared  to  affirm  that  it  is  a 
"  ransom  " :  hence,  we  are  compelled  to  admit  that  Jesus  attributed 
to  His  own  death  a  value  and  an  importance  which  have  never 
been  assigned  to  the  death  of  any  other  martyr.  The  sublime 
motive  of  this  "  ransom  "  was  to  bring  men  to  the  Father.  In 
some  degree  Jesus  coordinated  His  own  with  His  disciples' 
sufferings;  but  His  disciples  confess  that  they  are  willing  to  be 
sacrificed  "  for  His  sake,"  and  so  acknowledge  His  Lordship 
and  uniqueness.  The  personal  equation  can  never  be  omitted 
from  the  experiences  of  Jesus :  hence,  His  Passion  is  differen- 
tiated from  the  kindred  sufferings  of  His  followers  by  the  value 
and  character  of  His  Person.  A  certain  note  of  universality 
belongs  to  His  sacrifice  of  Himself;  He  acted  for  God  and  He 
represented  all  men;  His  death  has  wrought  mightily  as  a 
ransom — an  emancipating  force  in  our  race. 

8.  Weeks  and  even  months  prior  to  His  Crucifixion,  Jesus 
resolved  to  make  this  sacrifice ;  voluntarily  and  with  self-determi- 
nation He  set  His  face  toward  this  goal.  He  became  not  only 
the  victim  of  sacrifice,  but  also  a  sacrificing  Priest.  The  domi- 
nating principle  of  His  action  and  His  Passion  was  love  for 


The  Ministry  of  Ransom  347 

the  Father  and  for  His  brethren.  Those  who  define  the  ransom 
as  a  price  paid  to  God  for  man's  forgiveness  blaspheme  the 
Father,  and  no  one  in  these  days  dreams  of  saying  that  it  was 
paid  to  the  devil;  while,  to  personify  sin  and  make  it  the  object 
of  such  ransom,  empties  the  Master's  word  of  reality,  Jesus 
did  not  deal  with  ethical  abstractions;  He  lived  and  acted  in 
the  realm  of  persons.  This  great  key-word  connotes  deliver- 
ance, and  the  inward  and  moral  intention  of  the  ransom  must 
be  inferred  from  the  whole  drift  of  His  teaching.  The  message 
of  grace  dominated  all  His  preaching ;  He  came  for  the  remission 
of  sin — to  emancipate  men  from  a  vitiated  heredity,  from  en- 
vironing debasement  and  from  evil  habits.  The  profoundest 
words  of  Jesus  were  broadly  human,  not  juridical ;  ethical,  not 
ceremonial ;  of  grace,  not  of  law.  He  spoke  much  of  forgiveness, 
love,  peace,  freedom,  the  way,  the  truth  and  the  life;  and  if  we 
place  His  word  "  ransom  "  in  the  midst  of  this  constellation  of 
ideas,  it  will  neither  be  hardened  into  theological  dogma  nor 
evaporated  as  a  "  mere  figure  of  speech."  Analogies  may  be 
rightly  drawn  from  legal  institutions  and  sacrificial  ceremonies; 
but  if  the  metaphors  of  Jesus  be  treated  as  though  they  are 
terms  of  science  rather  than  of  religious  imagination,  we  lose 
their  beauty  and  meaning.  A  note  of  triumph  rings  in  this 
term  "  lutron  " ;  for  it  breathes  the  assurance  that  He  shall  see 
the  travail  of  His  soul  in  turning  many  to  righteousness.  The 
ransom-service  of  Jesus  was  a  sacrificial  life,  crowned  by  His 
deliberate,  voluntary  acceptance  of  an  ignominious  death;  and 
the  prophetic  word  has  been  verified  and  justified  by  history: 
for,  in  dying,  Jesus  gained  a  great,  spiritual  emancipation  for 
mankind. 


BOOK  VII 

THE  ROYAL  PROGRESS  AND  MESSIANIC 
STRUGGLE 


V 


CHAPTER  I 

THROUGH  JERICHO  TO  BETHANY 

I.  With  considerable  diffidence  and  readiness  to  receive  cor- 
rection, we  have  made  a  serious  chronological  transposition  of  the 
Johannine  representations  of  the  visits  of  Jesus  to  Jerusalem 
during  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  and  of  His  great  miracle  at 
Bethany,  tentatively  placing  the  events  before  the  crucial  incident 
of  feeding  the  multitudes  when  the  people  wanted  to  compel  Him 
to  be  their  King.  At  the  risk  of  an  accusation  of  wearisome  re- 
iteration, but  with  the  hope  of  clarifying  our  survey  of  the  remain- 
ing days  of  Jesus,  we  refer  again  to  this  rearrangement  of  the 
materials  given  in  the  Gospels,  as  exhibiting  an  ordered  develop- 
ment of  this  earthly  ministry,  throwing  light  on  the  motives  of 
Jesus,  and  on  the  reasons  for  the  official  rejection  of  Him  as  the 
claimant  of  Messiahship.  The  best  justification  of  such  at- 
tempted adjustments  of  chronology  is  found  in  the  resultant 
enhancement  of  intelligibility  in  the  records.  The  transpositions 
that  we  have  ventured  upon  in  the  course  of  this  study  result  at 
least  in  a  certain  dramatic  fitness — though  this  has  not  been  our 
guiding  principle — helping  us  to  perceive,  in  the  Ministry  of 
Jesus,  a  beginning,  middle  and  end,  whereby  the  final  passages  are 
thrown  into  bold  relief.  Very  impressive  and  significant  are  the 
fulness,  prominence  and  detail  attaching  to  the  close  of  His 
work,  as  represented  in  the  Gospels.  The  contrast  between  the 
meagreness  of  the  knowledge  of  His  earlier  work  and  the  com- 
parative fulness  of  that  of  the  later,  can  be  explained  only  by 
the  stupendous  value  found  in  the  Passion  by  the  first  witnesses. 
Professor  Burkitt  reminds  us,  "  On  the  very  shortest  estimate  the 
length  of  the  ministry  must  have  extended  to  about  four  hundred 
days,  and  I  doubt  if  our  Gospels  contain  stories  from  forty 
separate  days.  So  the  nine-tenths  at  least  of  the  public  lire  of 
Jesus  remains  to  us  a  blank,  even  if  we  were  to  take  every 
recorded  incident  '  as  historical  and  accurately  reported.' "  ^  Of 
the  three  years'  history  we  have  only  the  outlines :  "  there  are 

^  The  Gospel  History  and  its  Transmission,  p.  20. 
351 


852    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

also  many  other  things  which  Jesus  did,  the  which,  if  they  should 
be  written  every  one,  I  suppose  that  even  the  world  itself  could 
not  contain  the  books  that  should  be  written."  That  only  one- 
tenth  of  the  public  life  of  Jesus  is  recorded  at  all  makes  it  appear 
all  the  more  significant  that  the  final  phase  of  His  Ministry 
should  be  represented  with  such  amplitude  of  detail.  It  is  no 
satisfactory  explanation  of  this  unequal  emphasis  upon  the  clos- 
ing scenes,  to  attribute  it  solely  to  the  more  vivid  remembrance  of 
what  was  latest  in  Christ's  public  life;  the  accentuation  of  this 
part  of  His  life  at  least  witnesses  of  the  increased  importance 
attached  by  the  apostles  to  the  concluding  tragedy  which  began 
with  His  resolute  journey  toward  Jerusalem.  This  incidence  of 
emphasis  upon  the  last  days  of  our  Lord  is  not  peculiar  to  one 
evangelist;  it  is,  rather,  the  common  characteristic  of  all  the 
writers  of  the  New  Testament,  and  represents  the  prevailing 
attitude  of  primitive  Christian  thought.  It  is  incumbent  upon  us, 
therefore,  to  set  forth  as  clearly  as  possible  the  successive  steps 
in  this  period  of  the  consummation  of  that  work  that  Jesus  had 
planned  to  accomplish  in  the  world ;  seeking,  as  we  do  so,  to  dis- 
cern His  controlling  thought  as  He  approached,  with  clear  fore- 
knowledge and  autonomy,  toward  His  predestined  doom. 

2.  It  has  already  become  plain  that,  while  the  renewal  of 
Jesus'  public  ministry  in  Peraea,  with  its  consequent  revival  of 
popularity,  had  excited  afresh  the  vain  hopes  of  the  disciples, 
Jesus  Himself  was  reminded  at  every  step  that  the  road  He  had 
entered  upon  must  end  in  death.  His  route  lay  across  the  Jordan 
and  through  the  city  of  Jericho,  which  the  family  of  Herod  had 
made  beautiful  again.  This  city  of  ancient  fame  was  about 
eighteen  miles  from  the  capital;  between  it  and  Jerusalem  was 
Bethany,  on  the  slopes  of  Olivet,  and  about  two  miles  from 
Jerusalem.  From  St.  John's  statement  ^  that  Jesus  came  to 
Bethany  six  days  before  the  Passover,  it  may  be  inferred  as 
probable  that  He  reached  Jericho  on  a  Thursday,  and  spent  the 
night  in  the  house  of  Zacchaeus.  If  we  had  to  depend  on  St. 
Mark's  gospel  alone,  there  would  be  no  alternative  to  the  sug- 
gestion that  from  Jericho  Jesus  travelled  to  Jerusalem  in  one  day, 
entering  the  capital  amid  the  plaudits  of  excited  pilgrims,  and 
that  after  a  hurried  visit  to  the  temple  He  came  back  to  Bethany 
the  same  evening.     In  this  matter,  as  also  in  several  others,  we 

*John   xij.    I. 


Through  Jericho  to  Bethany  353 

derive  a  more  correct  impression  from  the  Johannine  record. 
Further,  the  first  two  evangelists  place  the  Supper  and  Anointing 
at  Bethany  two  days  prior  to  the  Crucifixion,  but  St.  John  relates 
that  it  happened  several  days  before.  The  Marcan  arrangement 
is  probably  due  to  the  topical  connection  between  Mary's  lavish 
gift  and  Judas's  treachery.  "  The  truth  is,  that  it  happened  as 
John  relates;  and  Matthew  and  Mark,  following  perhaps  the 
catechetical  practice,  bring  the  story  of  what  befell  at  Bethany 
into  juxtaposition  with  the  Betrayal."  ^  Although  the  chrono- 
logical sequence  is  confused  in  this  way,  a  very  distinct  im- 
pression is  made  upon  the  reader's  mind  that  Mary's  beautiful 
devotion  gave  the  occasion  for  exposing  Judas's  avarice,  and 
precipitated  the  final  act  of  treachery  that  led  to  the  arrest  of 
Jesus.  This  is  but  a  single  instance  of  St.  John's  intentional  modi- 
fications of  the  Synoptic  accounts,  and  the  examination  of  these 
so-called  discrepancies  convinces  us  that  the  fourth  evangelist 
aimed  not  only  at  supplementing  the  earlier  records  with  facts 
drawn  from  his  own  mental  repertory,  but  also  at  correcting  the 
existing  accounts  wherever  he  thought  them  to  err.  If  this  im- 
pression of  the  fourth  evangelist's  design  be  true,  then  he  must 
have  been  an  authority  qualified  for  such  a  work  by  being,  what 
he  claimed  to  be,  an  eye-witness  of  the  things  whereof  he  writes. 
Without  losing  sight  of  the  Johannine  difficulties,  it  may  be  said 
that  a  comparative  examination  of  the  Gospels  often  results  in  a 
growing  respect  for  the  historical  accuracy  and  insight  of  this 
writer  of  what  has  sometimes  been  termed  the  Spiritual  Gospel. 

3.  The  task  of  harmonizing  the  discrepant  accounts  of 
Christ's  entrance  into  and  departure  from  Jericho  has  always 
presented  grave  difficulties.  St.  Mark  represents  Him  to  have 
healed  the  blind  son  of  Timaeus  when  He  was  leaving  the  city; 
St.  Luke  places  this  miracle  in  the  story  of  His  entrance  into 
Jericho;  while  St.  Matthew  still  further  complicates  matters  by 
affirming  that  He  healed  two  blind  men  as  He  departed.  These 
discrepancies  have  sometimes  been  used  to  impugn  the  veracity 
and  reliability  of  the  Gospels;  but  at  most  they  do  but  prove 
that  these  writings  ought  to  be  read  with  critical  caution.  The 
evangelists  themselves  were  liable  to  err,  while  their  materials  had 
very  probably  become  confused  in  the  process  of  transmission. 
In  this  particular  instance  it  seems  as  if  St.  Matthew  himself  had 
*  Rev.  D.  Smith,  In  the  Days  of  His  Flesh,  Intro,  p.  xix. 


354    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

been  unwittingly  led,  by  a  similitude  between  two  instances  of 
miraculous  healing  of  the  blind,  into  a  confused  reduplication.'- 
St.  Luke  has  placed  on  record  his  own  methods  of  patient  investi- 
gation ;  and  without  minimizing  the  authority  of  the  Marcan  nar- 
rative, with  its  graphic  realism,  we  think  that  the  third  evangelist 
places  the  healing  of  Bar-Timaeus  in  its  correct  time-sequence. 
Having  thus  decided  upon  our  own  treatment  of  this  discrepancy, 
we  are  prepared  to  review  the  facts  relating  to  Christ's  journey  to 
Jericho  with  the  culminating  display  of  His  healing  power.  The 
Master  Himself  was  not,  as  we  have  seen,  deluded  by  the 
temporary  resurgence  of  popular  enthusiasm  in  Peraea;  He  had 
become  cognizant  of  the  dread  events  that  were  soon  to  happen. 
However,  as  He  drew  near  to  Jericho,  the  crowd  around  Him 
resolved  itself  into  a  huge  procession,  and  as  the  rumour  rani 
ahead,  the  citizens  were  caught  in  the  contagion  of  excitement 
and  came  out  to  meet  Him.  While  such  a  movement  intensified 
Christ's  own  feeling  of  spiritual  isolation,  it  fired  anew  the  am- 
bitions of  His  disciples,  and  they  probably  congratulated  them- 
selves upon  having  anticipated,  more  correctly  than  He,  the 
attitude  of  the  populace  toward  Him.  We  cannot  but  wonder 
how  they  must  have  looked  upon  a  possible  collision  with  the 
Roman  power.  It  may  be  that  these  untrained  bands  of  Mes- 
sianists  were  relying  upon  some  great  demonstration  of  super- 
natural power.  If  Moses  had  led  the  tribes  of  Israel  out  of 
Egypt,  it  seemed  credible  to  the  disciples  and  to  others  that  Jesus, 
who  undoubtedly  possessed  miraculous  gifts,  would  humiliate  the 
Roman  soldiery  with  a  display  of  the  power  of  God.  There  can 
be  little  doubt  that  imagination  ran  wild  for  a  time,  and  the 
whispered  hopes  and  conjectures  of  the  disciples  and  friends  of 
Jesus  may  have  threatened  an  inevitable  fulfilment  of  the  course 
of  events  outlined  by  Caiaphas. 

4.  Jericho,  with  its  foreign  buildings  and  pagan  morals,  may 
have  been  as  unattractive  to  the  temper  of  Jesus  as  the  city  of 
Csesarea  Philippi,  and  He  had  probably  no  intention  of  remaining 
there  more  than  a  single  night.  As  He  came  within  sight  of  it 
there  occurred  this  final  instance  of  His  miraculous  power  of 
healing,  which  multiplied  the  people's  excitement  tenfold.  Being 
the  Passover  season,  the  beggars,  who  seem  in  the  East  to  be 
ubiquitous,  were  looking  forward  to  their  annual  harvest  of  alms, 
^Cf.  Matt.  ix.  27  with  Matt.  xx.  30. 


Through  Jericho  to  Bethany  855 

and  were  lining  all  the  roadsides  up  to  Jerusalem.  One  of  their 
number,  a  blind  man,  the  son  of  Timaeus,  hearing  the  confused 
roar  which  accompanies  the  movements  of  a  great  crowd,  and 
learning  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  approaching,  conceived  the 
strange  hope  that  he  might  now  be  healed  of  his  blindness.  It  is 
probable  that  this  hope  was  born  of  the  remembrance  of  a  story 
about  the  miraculous  restoration  of  sight  in  the  case  of  a  man  at 
Jerusalem  who  was  born  blind.  As  Jesus  approached,  therefore, 
Bar-Timaeus  shouted,  "  Son  of  David !  Jesus !  Pity  me !  "  This 
clamorous  appeal  found  no  sympathy  with  the  crowd;  they  cal- 
lously bade  the  blind  man  be  silent,  but  he  cried  out  the  more. 
When  Jesus  heard,  He  halted  and  called  for  the  man.  At  once 
the  mood  of  the  fickle  people  changed;  they  said  to  the  beggar, 
"  Courage:  arise;  He  calls  thee."  It  has  been  judged  superfluous 
that  Jesus  should  ask  what  the  man  wanted,  but  acquaintance 
with  Eastern  beggars  would  give  point  to  such  a  question ;  for  not 
many  of  them  desire  the  total  cure  of  a  disease  that  excites  pity 
and  secures  a  regular  revenue.  Bar-Timaeus  was  whole-heartedly 
explicit  in  his  request,  "  Rabboni,  that  I  may  receive  my  sight," 
"  Go  your  way,"  said  Jesus ;  "  your  faith  has  saved  you."  The 
grateful  man  at  once  joined  the  crowds  around  Jesus,  evoking 
a  chorus  of  praise  as  he  glorified  God.  The  incident  itself  be- 
tokens a  change  in  the  mood  of  Jesus:  hitherto  He  had  rebuked 
the  demoniacs  when  they  acclaimed  Him  the  Messiah,  and  He 
had  commanded  that  His  disciples  should  be  silent  about  this 
title ;  but  now  He  no  longer  deprecates  the  use  of  the  Messianic 
title,  "  Son  of  David."  Whether  the  blind  man  meant  much  or 
little  by  this  name,  does  not  alter  the  important  fact  that  for 
Jesus  Himself  the  time  for  silence  had  gone ;  His  hour  had  come. 
That  He  made  no  reference  to  the  title  signified  an  implicit  ac- 
knowledgement of  its  fitness,  and  thus  His  last  miracle  virtually 
verified  His  Messiahship  in  the  eyes  of  the  people. 

5.  Rumours  of  the  healing  of  the  man  passed  with  lightning- 
like rapidity  among  the  crowd,  and  gave  a  thrill  of  increased 
excitement  to  Christ's  followers.  In  consequence  of  the  great- 
ness of  the  throng,  one  man,  Zacchaeus,  a  commissioner  of  taxes 
(ap;f  ireAaJvT/ff)  in  Jericho,  being  of  small  stature,  ran  ahead  of  the 
procession  and  climbed  into  a  fig-sycamore  tree.^  Jesus  may  have 
noticed  the  little  man  dodging  on  the  outskirts  of  the  crowd  and 

*  Luke  xix.  i-io. 


356    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

then  climbing  upon  the  tree ;  He  appreciated  an  earnestness  that 
dared  to  defy  propriety;  and  He  may  have  divined  the  hidden 
and  better  nature  of  this  rich  man.  When  He  came  to  the  tree, 
Jesus  stopped,  and  in  cordial,  friendly  tones  said,  "  Zacchaeus, 
make  haste  and  come  down :  this  day  I  must  abide  in  your  house." 
Christ's  saying  about  the  foxes  and  birds  having  their  respective 
dens  and  nests,  while  the  Son  of  Man  had  not  where  to  lay  His 
head,  was  hardly  applicable  to  this  period  of  revived  though 
short-Hved  popularity ;  for  in  Jericho  that  afternoon,  many  doors 
would  have  been  gladly  opened  for  Him  had  He  desired:  but, 
to  the  surprise  of  all  around,  He  invites  this  oppressive  agent  of 
the  Roman  tax-farmers  to  become  His  host.  To  the  strict  Jews 
this  repeated  instance  of  Christ's  good-will  toward  persons  who 
were  ostracized  by  the  respectable  and  patriotic  classes  was  an 
offence ;  but  to  us  it  reveals  the  large,  genial  tolerance  and  ethical 
optimism  of  Jesus.  Such  incidents  help  us  to  understand  how  He 
came  to  make  the  indelible  impression  of  being  the  greatest  of 
all  lovers  of  humanity.  This  impression  may  be  wholesomely  re- 
vived as  we  enter  upon  a  review  of  some  of  the  last  scenes  and 
dissertations  of  Jesus,  for  we  have  been  gradually  forced  to 
conceive  of  Him  as  a  great,  strong  personality  wielding  super- 
natural or  extraordinary  powers — as  one  who  scarcely  disguised 
an  unsurpassable  egoism  and  claim  to  tremendous  authority  by 
His  tremulous  and  gentle  pity.  There  is  a  danger,  however, 
that  in  correcting  the  prevailing  conception  of  the  mildness  of 
Jesus,  the  mind  may  swing  into  an  unbalanced  emphasis  upon  His 
self-conscious  greatness  and  masterful  self-possession:  hence,  it 
is  conducive  to  our  impression  of  the  symmetry  of  His  humanity 
to  consider  His  genial  friendliness  for  Zacchaeus.  The  tax- 
gatherer  was  himself  startled  by  His  condescension  and  was 
caught  out  of  the  callosity  of  mammon-worship  and  oppressive 
greed,  and  lifted  into  a  passion  of  repentance.  The  frankness 
and  magnanimous  confidence  of  Jesus  awoke  his  moral  nature 
from  its  long  sleep,  and  opened  the  springs  of  righteousness  and 
truth  in  his  soul.  While  Jesus  was  sitting  at  his  table,  Zacchaeus 
solemnly  announced  the  resolve  to  give  half  of  his  ill-gotten 
wealth  to  the  poor,  and  to  requite,  with  a  fourfold  reparation, 
those  whom  he  had  defrauded  by  extortionate  demands.  Jesus 
knew  probably  as  much  as  our  modern  psychologists  know  of 
the  potentialities  of  moral  passion  and  the  fine  force  of  idealism 
hidden  in  the  ordinary  man — hidden  often  by  vice  and  crime— 


Through  Jericho  to  Bethany  357 

and  sharing  the  joy  of  those  angels  who  watch  for  man's  re- 
pentance, He  gave  utterance  to  a  never-forgettable  logion  which 
follows  fitly  upon  the  word  about  ransom :  "  Salvation  has  come 
to  this  house  today,  seeing  that  he  also  is  a  Son  of  Abraham. 
For  the  Son  of  Man  came  to  seek  and  save  what  has  been  lost." 

6.  While  we  have  given  ample  recognition  to  the  Messianic  im- 
plication of  this  self-chosen  title,  "  Son  of  Man,"  we  have  yet  found 
its  content  to  be  predominantly  human  and  fraternal  rather  than 
official.  The  description  of  the  special  purpose  of  His  mission 
must  be  commensurate  with  the  breadth  and  catholicity  of  the 
Name  by  which  Jesus  designates  Himself;  that  Name  implies  that 
the  range  of  His  proposed  activity  must  be  coextensive  with  the  race. 
This  definition  of  the  Messiah's  function  in  the  world  is  so  strik- 
ingly luminous  and  comprehensive  that  it  harmonizes  wholly  with 
our  impression  of  the  Personality  of  Jesus.  No  mind  but  His  was 
capable  of  propounding  such  sublime  soteriology.  It  is  the  speech 
of  one  who  breathes  the  ampler,  purer  air  of  the  Spiritual  World ; 
and  without  overweighting  it  with  later  dogmas  of  the  Church, 
it  must  be  acknowledged  that  it  was  well-nigh  inevitable  that  men 
should  infer  that  the  Speaker  half-implied  that  He  had  come  into 
our  world  from  some  preexistent  state.  Whether  this  be  really  so 
or  not,  the  saying  has  become  the  keyword  of  the  mission  of 
the  Son  of  Man :  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  it  is  all  of  a  piece ; 
the  unmalleable  materials  of  His  human  experience  are  fused  into 
one  perfect  ministry  of  seeking  and  rescuing  the  lost.  Men, 
some  or  all  of  them,  seemed  to  Jesus  to  be  like  wandering,  silly 
sheep  in  perilous  places — like  lost  coin,  useless  when  withdrawn 
from  currency ;  like  the  prodigal  spending  himself  in  bestial  and 
slavish  indulgences,  which  leave  him  ever  more  unsatisfied. 
Such  states  have  their  gradations  and,  as  in  Dante's  Inferno,  every 
deep  opens  into  a  yet  lower  depth.  Such  a  conception  may  be 
at  variance  with  the  shallow  optimism  of  an  age  that  has  almost 
lost  the  sense  of  sin.  Externally  man's  history  may  present  a 
great  upward  movement;  in  the  sweep  of  universal  perspective 
sin  appears  to  the  evolutionist  a  mere  shadow,  a  negation,  a  tem- 
porary missing  of  the  mark.  But  then  the  truest  passages  of 
human  experience  can  never  be  understood  by  an  outside  view ;  in 
all  thought,  emotion  and  action  we  have  to  reckon  the  psycho- 
logical, ethical  and  personal  values.  History  can  only  be  inter- 
preted from  within.    The  common  mistake  about  evolution  arises 


358    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

from  the  assumption  that  perceptible  morphological  processes 
cover  the  whole  of  human  experience.  But  since  the  belief  in 
free-will,  even  if  it  be  illusory,  clings  to  our  minds  with  such 
stubbornness,  we  have  to  treat  the  sense  of  choice  as  the  central 
cell  of  personality,  and  to  read  life  from  this  inward  point  of 
view.  The  underlying  assumption  of  man's  self-conscious  activity 
is  that  the  soul  believes  itself  to  be  accountable  before  God.  If, 
then,  the  attitude  of  the  will  to  God  determines  life,  sin  is  not 
simply  a  negative  thing,  a  missing  of  the  mark;  it  is,  in  its  es- 
sence, an  antagonism  to  God.  Wherever  this  enmity  with  God 
exists,  man  may  be  truthfully  described  as  lost.  Of  "  original  sin," 
Pascal  says :  "  Certainly  nothing  shocks  us  more  than  this  doc- 
trine; and  yet,  without  this  most  incomprehensible  of  all  mys- 
teries, we  are  an  unintelligible  enigma  to  ourselves.  This  is  the 
master-key  to  the  intricacies  and  perplexities  of  human  existence. 
So  that,  however  inconceivable  this  mystery  may  be,  man  without 
it  is  still  more  inconceivable."  The  recluse  of  Port  Royal  ac- 
cepted the  verdict  of  Jesus  concerning  our  moral  condition. 
He  says,  again :  "  If  man  had  never  become  corrupt,  he  would 
have  enjoyed  truth  and  happiness  with  certainty;  and  if  a  man 
had  always  been  corrupt,  he  would  have  had  no  idea  of  truth  or 
of  happiness.  But  unhappy  mortals  as  we  are  ...  we  have 
the  idea  of  a  happiness  which  we  can  never  reach ;  there  glimmers 
before  us  the  image  of  truth,  but  we  grasp  falsehood  only ;  we  are 
incapable  alike  of  absolute  ignorance  and  of  complete  certainty: 
these  are  sufficient  indications  that  we  were  once  in  a  state  of 
perfection,  '  or  designed  for  that  state,  from  which  we  are  un- 
happily fallen.'  "  ^  An  unexpected  supporter  of  this  mysterious 
dogma  is  found  to-day  in  G.  K.  Chesterton,^  who  finds  in  it  the 
only  explanation  of  man's  present  state,  and  derives  from  it  the 
dynamic  principle  which  is  to  destroy  all  oppressions  and  evils. 
But  while  many  agree  with  Jesus  in  His  description  of  man  as 
"  lost,"  He  has  no  rival  in  His  own  tremulous  sensitiveness  to  the 
loss  sustained  by  God;  in  most  of  us  conscience  is  only  faintly 
responsive  to  the  reality  of  its  own  ethical  insights;  but  Jesus 
felt  the  full  measure  of  the  loss.  In  His  own  gracious  speech, 
just  as  the  shepherd  misses  the  wandering  sheep,  as  the  woman 
grieves  for  her  lost  coin,  and  the  father  agonized  over  his  son 
who  was  a  prodigal,  so  the  Son  of  Man  compassionates  the 
"  lost "  and  seeks  to  save  them.  In  part  the  nature  of  the  salva- 
*  Pascal's  Thoughts.  *  Orthodoxy. 


Through  Jericho  to  Bethany  359 

tion  Jesus  gave  may  be  inferred  from  His  treatment  of  Zacchaeus  ; 
He  evoked  the  upspringing  emotion  and  urging  thought  of  genu- 
ine repentance;  He  renewed  the  lost  manhood  from  within,  rob- 
bing the  man  of  no  jot  or  tittle  of  freedom  and  responsibility. 
Such  is  the  new  moral  endowment  which  was  to  be  universalized 
through  the  anticipated  Cross ;  by  dying  for  men  He  made  ac- 
cessible to  all  the  new  life  which  came  to  Zacchaeus. 

7.  On  the  morrow — probably  on  Friday — Jesus  bade  a  final 
farewell  to  Jericho,  and  resumed  His  fateful  journey  toward 
Jerusalem.  St.  Luke  accurately  depicts  the  mood  of  the  fol- 
lowers of  Jesus  at  that  time,  "  they  thought  that  the  Kingdom  of 
God  should  immediately  appear."  ^  Those  who  identify  the 
Parable  of  the  Pounds  with  that  of  the  Talents,  or  who  suppose 
that  St.  Luke  misplaces  an  address  given  later  in  St.  Matthew,^ 
lose  by  their  supposition  a  great  interpretative  word  of  the  Mas- 
ter's thought; — a  word  which  proves  to  us  that  Jesus  did  not 
misconstrue  His  triumphal  entry  into  Jerusalem,  whatever  the 
disciples  anticipated.  The  third  evangelist,  however,  appears  to 
have  mixed  together  two  distinct  traditions  of  resembling  para- 
bles. Jesus  may  have  had  in  His  thoughts  the  story  of  Herod's 
visits  to  Rome  when,  in  spite  of  the  Jewish  embassy  which  was 
sent  to  plead  against  his  misdeeds,  Augustus  granted  the  kingdom 
to  him.3  "  A  certain  nobleman,"  said  Jesus,  "  went  into  a  far 
country  to  receive  for  himself  a  kingdom  and  to  return."  It  may 
be  that  the  Creator  of  the  parable  said  of  the  nobleman  that  be- 
fore departing  he  distributed  ten  pounds  among  ten  servants, 
that  they  might  trade  therewith  during  his  absence.  Two  dis- 
tinct lines  of  thought  may  intersect  each  other  in  a  teacher's  mind 
and  express  themselves  in  dual  but  intertwined  parables ;  or  they 
may  become  mingled  in  the  confused  memories  of  the  listeners. 
The  marvel  is  that  we  have  received  such  correct  reports  of  so 
large  a  part  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus.  The  visits  of  Herod  and 
of  Archelaus  to  Rome  become  typical  in  the  sayings  of  our  Lord 
of  His  anticipated  journey  or  exodus.  In  the  case  of  Archelaus, 
"  his  citizens  hated  him,  and  sent  a  message  after  him,  sriying, 
We  will  not  have  this  man  to  reign  over  us  " ;  this,  too,  became 
typical  of  the  remonstrance  that  the  Jews  would  make  to  Pilate 
a  week  later,  "  Write  not  the  King  of  the  Jews."    The  brief 

*Luke  xix.  II.  'Matt.  xxiv.  3. 

'Jos.,  Ant.,  xvii.,  8,  1-9,  3,  11,  4;  B.  /.,  ii.,  6. 


360    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

resurgence  of  popular  feeling  in  favour  of  Jesus  does  not,  for  a 
single  moment,  blur  His  clear  prevision  of  the  unmitigated  op- 
position of  the  established  authorities.  The  "  journey  into  a 
far  country"  is  parabolic  of  the  Messiah's  approaching  exodus; 
for  His  death,  though  marked  by  outward  violence,  was  freely 
undertaken  by  Jesus  Himself.  Widely  different,  indeed,  from  all 
the  disciples'  conjectures  would  be  the  actual  manner  in  which 
Jesus  would  accede  to  His  throne!  Still,  just  as  the  nobleman 
returns  as  the  acknowledged  king  to  reward  and  punish  the  doings 
of  citizens  and  servants,  so  Jesus  also  was  assured  that  He  would 
come  again;  and  even  if  this  expected  parousia  were  exclusively 
spiritual,  it  must  express  itself  in  the  visible  course  of  history. 
Whether  the  denunciation  and  punishment  of  those  in  the  parable 
who  rejected  the  nobleman's  claim  be  or  be  not  designedly  predic- 
tive of  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  we  may  find  in  that  disaster  a 
dreadful  fulfilment  of  this  parabolic  saying. 

8.  We  have  already  stated  that  we  accept  St.  John's  correc- 
tion of  St.  Mark's  final  hexameron,  and  may  proceed  on  the 
assumption  that,  instead  of  completing  the  entire  journey  to 
Jerusalem  in  one  day  Jesus  and  His  disciples  halted  for  the  night 
at  Bethany.  The  Jewish  Sabbath  being  reckoned  from  evening 
to  evening,  it  was  necessary  that  He  should  leave  Jericho  early 
on  Friday,  in  order  that  Bethany  might  be  reached  in  the  after- 
noon. Allowing  for  a  noonday  rest  the  journey  of  about  sixteen 
miles  would  take  from  six  to  seven  hours.  St.  John  definitely 
corrects  the  Marcan  tradition  that  the  Supper  at  Bethany  took 
place  only  two  days  before  the  Passover,  stating  that  it  occurred 
six  days  before  the  great  feast.  "  That  is  apparently,"  says  Dr. 
Westcott,^  "  on  the  8th  Nisan.  If  .  .  .  the  Crucifixion  took 
place  on  the  14th  Nisan,  and  if,  which  seems  to  be  less  certain, 
that  day  was  a  Friday,  the  date  given  by  St.  John  falls  on  the 
Sabbath.  It  must  then  be  supposed  that  the  feast  took  place  in 
the  evening  after  the  close  of  the  Sabbath.  If  the  Passion  fell 
on  Thursday,  for  which  strong  reasons  can  be  adduced,  the  ar- 
rival at  Bethany  took  place  on  Friday.  In  this  case  the  Sabbath 
was  kept  a  day  of  rest,  and  followed  by  the  feast.  On  either  sup- 
position the  entrance  into  Jerusalem  was  made  on  the  Sunday, 
the  next  (natural)  day."  The  difficulty  about  the  days  is  not 
greater  than  our  perplexity  about  Simon  the  leper,  who  he  was, 
and    what    relationship    he    sustained    to    Christ's    well-known 

'/n  loco. 


Through  Jericho  to  Bethany  361 

friends.  Some  have  identified  him  with  the  Pharisee-host  of  the 
same  name ;  ^  others  have  regarded  him  as  the  father  of  the  sisters 
and  of  Lazarus.  In  this  latter  case,  Jesus  may  have  healed  him ; 
or,  he  being  deceased,  his  son  would  naturally  act  as  host.  An- 
other alternative  hypothesis  is  that  Lazarus  and  his  sisters  had 
simply  hired  the  house  of  Simon  the  leper  for  this  feast,  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  more  commodious  than  their  own.  Passing 
from  this  debated  point  to  the  question  of  a  resemblance  between 
this  and  the  Lucan  story  of  an  anointing  of  Jesus,  we  can  but 
express  astonishment  that  any  critics  have  ventured,  on  such 
slender  data,  to  identify  the  penitent  woman  of  the  town  with 
Mary  of  Bethany.  There  is  no  trait  in  Mary's  character,  no 
single  act  or  word  of  hers,  to  justify  the  suspicion  that  her 
gentle,  contemplative  spirit  had  been  stained  by  an  immoral  life. 
Next  to  Mary,  the  Mother  of  Jesus,  we  think  of  this  sister  of 
Lazarus  as  the  very  type  and  symbol  of  pure,  modest  womanli- 
ness. The  motif  of  St.  Luke's  story  is  different ; — the  respective 
scenes  are  utterly  unlike,  the  interlocutors  are  not  the  same, 
their  criticisms  fit  into  their  respective  narratives,  but  cannot 
be  identified  by  any  ingenious  reasoning;  nor  can  the  parable  of 
the  earlier  incident  be  twisted  into  a  eulogy  of  Mary,  But,  then, 
a  further  perplexity  arises  from  the  discrepancies  between  the 
accounts  of  the  first  two  Gospels  and  the  narrative  in  St.  John. 
The  latter  states  that  Mary  anointed  the  Master's  feet ;  the  other 
evangelists  affirm  that  she  poured  the  pure  nard  over  His  head. 
Once  again,  it  can  only  be  suggested  that  the  later  writer  desired 
to  correct  a  misconception  which  had  become  crystallized  in  the 
early  tradition  of  the  incident;  and  this  would  account  for  his 
twice-repeated  allusion  to  the  feet  of  Jesus. ^ 

9.  However  irreconcilable  such  a  discrepancy  may  be,  leaving 
us  to  choose  one  as  the  alternative  of  the  other,  yet  following  out 
our  impressionist  method  we  are  constrained  to  believe  in  the 
substantial  genuineness  of  these  two  traditions.  The  evangelists 
agree  in  setting  forth  the  exquisite  sacrament  of  personal  homage 
and  sacrificing  devotion  performed  by  Mary.  Lazarus  is  spe- 
cially mentioned  as  being  one  of  the  company  at  the  table ;  but  the 
recorders  do  not  emulate  the  art  of  fictionists  and  unseal  his  silent 
lips  to  satisfy  our  curiosity.  With  Jesus  Himself  were  the 
Twelve,  and  perhaps  other  guests.  "  Then  took  Mary  a  pound 
^Luke  vii.  36f.  ^John  xi.  2;  xii.  3. 


362    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

of  ointment  of  spikenard,  very  costly,  and  anointed  the  feet  of 
Jesus,  and  wiped  His  feet  with  her  hair :  and  the  house  was  filled 
with  the  odour  of  the  ointment."  Such  an  act  sprang  from  an 
imagination  fired  by  great  passion ;  it  bespoke  the  originality  of 
conception  born  of  love;  and  it  was  too  full  of  a  woman's  best 
grace  to  be  appreciated  by  coarse  selfishness  and  cold  calculation. 
Yet  one  feels  that  the  disciples  might  have  cordially  approved  an 
act  which  was  the  anointing  of  One  they  believed  to  be  the  Mes- 
sianic King.  For  how  many  of  that  company,  we  wonder,  was 
Judas  the  spokesman,  when  he  objected  that  the  costly  gift  that 
had  been  lavished  upon  Jesus  might  have  been  sold  for  three 
hundred  denarii  (about  iio),  and  this  sum  distributed  among 
the  poor?  Long  years  after,  in  recording  this  story,  the  fourth 
evangelist  wrote  as  though  the  subsequent  history  had  disclosed 
the  dishonesty  of  Judas :  "  Now  he  said  this,  not  that  he  cared  for 
the  poor,  but  because  he  was  a  thief;  and  because  he  pilfered 
what  was  put  into  the  purse  of  which  he  had  charge."  For  the 
justification  of  this  charge  we  know  nothing  beyond  Judas's 
supreme  act  of  treachery.  So  far  as  the  other  disciples  were 
concerned,  such  rude  ebullition  of  grudging  economy  sprang  from 
poverty  and  from  the  lack  of  those  refined  ardours  which  swayed 
Mary's  soul.  The  suggestion  that  the  spikenard  had  originally 
been  purchased  for  the  brother's  grave  is  not  free  from  objec- 
tions, although  it  would  account  for  Mary's  possession  of  the 
costly  ungent.  But  it  may  have  been  that  this  family  at  Bethany 
owned  considerable  property,  so  that  Mary  robbed  no  one  by  her 
splendid  extravagance.  The  Master  understood  her  devotion, 
and  threw  over  her  the  shield  of  his  approval  to  defend  her 
from  the  uncouth  reproach  of  Judas.  "  Let  her  alone !  Why 
molest  her?  She  hath  done  a  beautiful  deed  for  Me.  For  you 
have  the  poor  always  with  you,  and  whenever  you  like,  you 
can  do  them  good ;  but  Me  you  have  not  always.  She  hath  done 
what  she  could ;  she  hath  anointed  My  body  in  anticipation  of  the 
burial.^  And  I  tell  you  truly,  wherever  the  Gospel  shall  be 
preached  through  the  whole  world,  this  woman's  act  shall  be  also 
told  in  remembrance  of  her." 

10.     Mary  needs  no  other  defence.     Three  hundred  denarii 
distributed  among  the  poor  would  have  been  a  worthy  charity, 

*Dr.  E.  A.  Abbot  has  suggested  that  ^  may  have  slipped  out  after  air^: 
"or  is  it  your  wish  that  she  should  keep  it  for  My  embalming?" 


Through  Jericho  to  Bethany  363 

but  it  would  not  have  filled  the  whole  world  with  the  perfume 
of  love,  as  Mary's  act  has  done.^  It  requires  the  passion  and 
romantic  imagination  of  Francis  of  Assisi  to  appreciate  this 
beautiful  deed  in  any  adequate  way.  There  is  a  false  economy 
which  advises  a  penury  in  devotion  on  the  pretext  of  alms- 
giving. Sympathy  for  the  poor,  however,  did  not  lead  Jesus  to 
lift  utility  above  the  instinctive  munificence  of  self-sacrificing 
love.  The  spirit  of  Mary's  act  made  it  seem  to  Jesus  as  the  anoint- 
ing of  His  body  for  the  tomb.  As,  just  previously.  He  had  com- 
pared Himself  to  a  nobleman  going  away  to  receive  the  gift  of  a 
kingdom  from  his  over-lord,  so  now  at  the  Supper-table  He 
speaks  again  of  death  as  the  mode  of  His  departure.  When  the 
disciples  were  looking  for  His  coronation  apart  from  any  dan- 
gerous journey,  He  was  anticipating  His  funeral  rites  and  colour- 
ing every  passing  incident  by  this  His  predominant  thought.  In 
making  Mary's  anointing  of  Himself  the  preparatory  rite  of  His 
burial,  He  spoke  as  though  He  foreknew  that  the  circumstances 
of  His  death  would  preclude  the  customary  obsequies.  Yet  once 
again  He  signifies  that  His  decease  will  not  be  the  end  of  His 
cause.  As  the  nobleman  came  back  to  claim  his  kingdom,  so 
would  the  Messiah  come  to  His  inheritance.  In  harmony  with 
this  anticipation  of  a  great  future,  Jesus  now  predicts  that  the 
demonstration  of  Mary's  love  is  destined  to  be  declared  wherever 
the  Gospel  shall  be  preached.  He  also  perceived  that  His  own 
body  will  be  broken  as  the  alabaster-box ;  but  when  it  is  shattered 
the  perfume  of  life — His  Gospel — will  fill  the  world.  With 
graphic  skill  St.  Mark  draws  over  against  the  gracious  woman 
the  dark  sinister  figure  of  the  loveless  Judas.  Henceforth  the 
shadow  of  a  traitor  falls  across  the  pathway  of  Jesus.  Such  a 
man  could  not  breathe  freely  in  the  aroma  of  love ;  the  utter  un- 
worldliness  of  Jesus  and  Mary  precipitated  the  feelings  of  discon- 
tent and  disappointment  which  had  begun  with  the  schism  at 
Capernaum.  The  woman  lavished  her  love-gift  upon  her  Lord; 
but  Judas,  stung  into  revolt  by  this  futile  idealism,  went  out  to 
plan  the  darkest  act  of  treachery  known  in  history.  "  Then  Judas 
of  Kerioth,  who  was  one  of  the  Twelve,  went  ofif  to  the  high- 
priests  to  betray  Him  to  them." 

*  See  Stopford  Brooke's  Christ  in  Modern  Life,  ser.  xviii.  art.  Ex- 
penditure. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  TRIUMPHAL  ENTRY 

I.  While  we  have  accepted  the  Marcan  ground-plan  of 
Christ's  public  work,  as  outlining  the  general  scheme  of  the 
Synoptics,  we  have  not  hesitated  to  treat  it  elastically,  inserting 
not  only  the  "  great  interpolation  "  of  St.  Luke's  gospel,  but  also 
the  Johannine  account  of  the  Judaean  ministry.  We  further 
modify  the  chronology  of  St.  Mark  by  lengthening  the  duration 
of  Christ's  public  life;  had  we  only  the  data  supplied  by  the 
Synoptic  Gospels,  we  might  infer  that  the  ministry  lasted  little 
more  than  one  year,  but  this  impression  is  corrected  by  St.  John, 
who  mentions  three  different  Passovers  in  the  course  of  our 
Lord's  itineration.  A  possible  method  of  criticism  adopted  by 
men  lacking  in  imagination  and  sympathetic  insight,  or  endued 
with  philosophical  prejudices,  is  to  place  the  two  main  tradi- 
tions— the  Synoptic  and  the  Johannine — in  bald  antagonism  so 
that  the  credibility  of  both  is  undermined  at  the  start.  A  more 
effectual  and  natural  method,  however,  appears  to  be  that  which 
aims  at  combining  scientific  attention  to  detail  with  a  frank  im- 
pressionism, which  seeks  for  a  probable  synopsis  of  events  rather 
than  for  a  mere  destruction  of  the  credibility  of  our  witnesses. 
Having  already  pointed  out  the  evident  intention  of  the  fourth 
evangelist  to  supplement  and  correct  the  Synoptic  tradition,  it 
gives  us  no  shock  to  find  some  important  incidents  entirely  omitted 
from  his  gospel.  But  it  surprises  and  pleases  the  reader  to  ob- 
serve that,  in  spite  of  such  omissions  the  Fourth  Gospel  often 
enables  us  to  see  the  true  order  of  the  events  related  only  by  the 
Synoptists.  For  example,  the  earlier  evangelists  had  received  and 
recorded  a  form  of  tradition  which  ran  the  story  of  the  journey 
from  Jericho  to  Bethany  into  the  account  of  Christ's  entry  into 
Jerusalem,  so  that  in  reading  their  narratives  it  is  easy  and 
natural  to  fail  to  observe  the  sign  of  an  interruption  in  the  jour- 
ney from  Jericho  to  Jerusalem.^  Had  not  St.  John,  therefore, 
stated  definitely  that  Jesus  remained  at  Bethany  that  night,  in- 

*  Matt,  xxi.'i ;  Luke  xix.  29. 
364 


The  Triumphal  Entry  865 

stead  of  going  on  with  the  other  pilgrims  to  the  capital,  we  should 
have  inferred,  from  the  Marcan  narrative,  that  Jesus  pursued 
His  journey  to  Jerusalem  on  the  same  day,  and  it  would  have 
seemed  that  the  triumphal  entry  ended  in  an  anti-climax — that, 
having  looked  around  on  the  temple,  Jesus  at  once  returned 
quietly  to  Bethany.  But  when  the  various  traditions  are  set 
side  by  side,  an  impression  is  made  upon  us  that  St.  John's  ac- 
count gives  us  first-hand  impressions  and  memories  of  an  eye- 
witness. Jesus,  we  believe,  halted  at  Bethany  and  spent  one  or 
two  nights  with  His  friends  in  that  place,  where  He  was  enter- 
tained at  supper,  probably  on  the  evening  following  the  Sabbath, 
when  there  occurred  the  anointing  which  we  have  just  consid- 
ered;^ then,  on  the  following  morning  (of  Palm  Sunday),  He 
entered  Jerusalem  amid  the  plaudits  of  an  excited  throng  of 
pilgrims. 

2.  We  have  no  account  of  the  manner  in  which  Jesus  spent  the 
last  Sabbath  before  His  Crucifixion;  probably  it  was  passed  in 
quietude  and  meditation,  since  He  was  in  great  need  of  rest, 
physically  and  mentally.  Having  come  once  again  into  Judaea, 
He  might  acquiesce  in  the  ban  of  excommunication  which  took 
away  His  right  to  attend  the  synagogue  service.  At  some  time 
during  the  evening,  Jesus  may  have  privately  informed  His  dis- 
ciples of  His  intention  of  riding  into  the  city  the  next  morning 
upon  an  ass ;  and,  if  so,  they  would  discuss  the  significance 
of  this  project.  It  was  not  the  plan  of  entry  that  popular  imagina- 
tion had  conceived;  but  then,  however  lowly  the  animal  of  the 
Master's  choice.  His  deliberate  resolve  to  go  in  this  way  at  least 
betokened  that  a  momentous  change  had  come  over  Him ;  instead 
of  seeking  privacy.  He  was  courting  a  new  kind  of  publicity. 
Even  Judas,  if  he  heard  of  this  plan,  might  have  bridled  his 
anger,  at  least  for  a  time,  until  he  saw  what  would  result  from 
this  Messianic  demonstration  through  Jerusalem.  The  disciples 
had  been  compelled  to  abandon  the  thought  that  Jesus  would 
resort  to  the  sword  in  order  to  subdue  the  Roman  usurpation  in 
Palestine :  it  might,  however,  enter  into  their  imaginations  tliat  He 
would  put  forth  His  supernatural  powers  for  the  overthrow  of 
all  enemies  and  for  the  restitution  of  the  kingdom.  Although  it 
may  seem  almost  unintelligible  to  us,  that  the  disciples  should  be 
absorbed  in  dreams  of  power  after  months  of  reiterated  instruc- 
^  Vide    Caspari,  Chron.,  Eng.  tr.,  217. 


366    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

tion  by  Jesus  Himself  that  He  was  going  to  Jerusalem  to  die: 
still,  it  is  the  same  gospels  which  record  these  detailed  anticipa- 
tions of  His  Passion  that  also  describe  the  disciples  as  im- 
pervious to  such  predictions,  and  represent  them  as  acting  as 
though  Jesus  had  never  breathed  a  syllable  about  His  approach- 
ing end.  Is  it  possible  to  find  any  rational  interpretation  of 
such  singular  inconsistency  in  the  same  narratives?  The  answer 
is  that  only  the  historical  reality  of  the  same  inconsistency  in 
the  behaviour  of  the  disciples  can  explain  such  contradictions: 
hence,  we  are  compelled  to  seek  some  explanation  in  the  minds 
of  these  men  to  account  for  their  self-delusion.  Christ's  fore- 
announcements  of  His  Passion  were  not,  in  themselves,  so  unin- 
telligible ;  but  it  would  seem  that  the  disciples  resolutely  shut  out 
all  such  thoughts  from  their  minds  as  incompatible  with  His 
Messiahship.  It  is  easy  to  understand  how  it  came  to  pass  that 
with  this  disbelief  they  refrained  from  asking  Jesus  questions 
upon  the  matter.  Peter  and  his  companions  were  afraid  of  in- 
curring another  rebuke  such  as  Jesus  had  spoken  in  the  vicinity  of 
Caesarea  Philippi ;  but,  although  silent,  these  followers  were 
mentally  antagonistic  to  all  such  predictions.  As  we  have  seen, 
one  of  the  effects  of  this  grave  discrepancy  between  their 
thoughts  and  the  Master's,  was  that  of  occasional  alienation  from 
our  Lord,  even  while  they  loved  Him.  Hence  we  find  that  the 
only  solution  of  this  problem  in  the  Gospels  is  to  believe  that  they 
actually  reflect  the  difficulty  which  agitated  the  disciples  them- 
selves. Certainly  no  members  of  the  Primitive  Church  would 
invent  an  imaginary  estrangement  between  our  Lord  and  His 
disciples,  so  utterly  discreditable  to  the  latter.  While  we  dread  to 
adopt  those  facile  evasions  of  real  difficulties  in  our  Gospels,  it 
does  appear  to  us  as  not  psychologically  improbable  that  the  dis- 
ciples were,  at  this  period,  cherishing  a  mood  of  mingled  behef 
and  unbelief;  that,  while  they  confessed  Jesus  to  be  the  Messiah, 
they  rejected  His  predictions  as  the  delusions  of  disappointment. 
Judas  alone  of  the  Twelve  seems  to  have  been  clear-sighted 
enough  to  apprehend  a  probable  catastrophe,  and  he  was  feeling 
increasing  hostility  to  One  who  claimed  the  title  and  yet  dis- 
claimed the  role  of  a  Messiah.  Prudence  dictated  the  advisa- 
bility of  awaiting  the  issues  of  the  project  to  enter  Jerusalem 
in  a  public  though  peaceful  way ;  but  already  he  had  con- 
ceived the  malevolent  idea  of  making  profit  out  of  His  Master's 
failure. 


The  Triumphal  Entry  367 

3.  The  resuscitation  of  the  popular  enthusiasm  for  Jesus  now 
culminated  in  a  brief  hour's  triumph,  which  recalls  a  passage 
from  the  prophecy  of  Zechariah :  "  Rejoice  greatly,  O  daughter 
of  Sion!  shout  aloud,  O  daughter  of  Jerusalem!  behold  thy 
King  cometh  unto  thee ;  vindicated  and  victorious,  meek  and  rid- 
ing upon  an  ass,  and  a  colt,  the  foal  of  an  ass."  ^  Probably  few 
incidents  in  Christ's  Ministry  give  more  surprise  than  this  of  the 
Triumphal  Entry  into  Jerusalem;  it  betrays  Christ's  abandon  of 
all  His  accustomed  reserve ;  and  to  many  it  savours  of  a  histrionic 
device  for  bringing  about  an  apparent  fulfilment  of  ancient 
prophecy,  which  seems  incongruous  with  our  impression  of  Him. 
Something  in  the  retrospective  recital  of  this  event — in  its  tone 
and  colour — may  be  due  to  the  early  habit  of  tracing  corre- 
spondence between  the  oracles  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
events  of  Christ's  life.  The  fourth  evangelist  plainly  states  that 
His  followers  did  not  at  once  understand  the  significance  of  these 
correspondences ;  to  quote  his  words,  "  His  disciples  did  not 
understand  these  things  at  first ;  but  when  Jesus  was  exalted,  then 
they  remembered  that  these  things  had  been  written  of  Him,  and 
that  they  had  acted  thus  to  Him."  ^  Such  appears  to  be  a  fair  ac- 
count of  one  of  the  processes  of  thought  concerning  Jesus  which 
went  on  in  the  Apostolic  Church.  The  remembrance  of  Old 
Testament  prophecies  did  not  create  imaginary  incidents  in  the 
traditions  of  His  life ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  incidents  which 
had  actually  occurred  recalled  in  subsequent  reflection  prophetic 
and  literary  anticipations  distributed  throughout  the  ancient 
Scriptures.  And  yet  when  once  the  tendency  to  seek  for  such 
analogies  had  arisen,  it  became  inevitable  that  it  should  result 
in  an  exaggeration  of  resemblances,  and  also  that  sometimes 
correspondences  would  be  imagined  where  they  did  not  really 
exist.  The  evangelist  known  to  us  as  St.  Matthew  evinces 
a  strong  liking  for  such  supposed  prophetic  quotations,  some  of 
which  are  exquisitely  apt  and  beautiful,  while  others  seem  forced 
and  mechanical.  An  instance  of  the  Evangelist's  felicitous  use  of 
the  Old  Testament  is  found  in  his  application  to  Jesus  of  the 
Isaianic  sentence,  "  Himself  took  our  infirmities  and  bare  our 
diseases  " ;  while  an  illustration  of  the  tendency  to  force  unreal 
parallels  is  found  in  the  second  chapter,  when  he  quotes  as 
prophetic  the  ambiguous  saying,  "  He  shall  be  called  a  Nazarene." 
In  St.  Matthew's  application  of  Zechariah's  oracle  as  something 

^Zech.  ix.  9,  Prof.  G.  A.  Smith's  trans..  *John  xii.  16. 


368    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

fulfilled  in  Christ's  entrance  into  Jerusalem,  we  have  an  interest- 
ing though  unconscious  disclosure  of  the  moulding  influence  of 
this  preconception  that  such  correspondences  are  an  important 
part  of  Revelation.  For  instance,  the  second  and  third  evangelists  ^ 
mention,  in  this  connection,  only  "  the  colt "  (n-cSAov),  as  though 
they  sought  to  evade  the  ridicule  which  the  mention  of  an  ass 
would  excite  among  Gentiles ;  but  St.  Matthew,  writing  under  the 
influence  of  Zechariah's  word  of  prophecy,  states  boldly  that  the 
disciples  brought  "  the  ass  and  the  colt,  and  put  on  them  their 
garments,  and  he  sat  on  them."  One  is  not  astonished  that 
Strauss  should  have  found  in  this  a  provocation  of  satire  and 
ridicule.^  It  can  only  be  supposed  that  the  mistake  sprang  out  of 
the  Evangelist's  negligence  of  the  law  of  parallelism  in  Hebrew 
poetry,  which  made  him  construe  the  rhythmic  refrain  as  the 
prophet's  allusion  to  a  second  animal.  "  Meek  and  riding  on  an 
ass,  and  on  a  colt,  the  she  ass's  foal."  More  serious,  however, 
than  such  a  lapse  or  misinterpretation  is  the  Evangelist's  assump- 
tion that  what  appeared  in  prophecy  must  have  reappeared  in  the 
actual  career  of  Jesus.  It  would,  however,  be  a  repetition  of  a 
like  arbitrary  and  ill-judged  reasoning,  if  from  this  error  we 
inferred  that  there  were  no  correspondences  at  all.  Such  a  deduc- 
tion is  as  fallacious  as  that  sometimes  made  from  the  fact  that 
analogies  may  be  traced  between  the  Gospels  and  the  myths  of 
Hercules,  Perseus  and  Cadmus — that  such  parallels  prove  the 
Gospels  to  be  fictitious  and  historically  worthless.  We  have  to 
remind  ourselves  once  more,  that  there  is  no  such  short  and  easy 
method  of  dealing  with  ancient  narratives;  that,  in  treating  the 
New  Testament,  each  book,  each  incident,  must  be  weighed  and 
judged  on  its  own  merits,  and  on  the  evidences  forthcoming.  In 
like  manner  each  supposed  fulfilment  of  prophecy  in  the  life  of 
Jesus  must  be  treated  on  the  ground  of  its  intrinsic  probabilities 
and  on  circumstantial  evidence.  In  relation  to  the  general 
question  of  correspondences,  we  recall  the  statement  of  St.  Luke 
concerning  the  risen  Christ :  "  These  are  My  words  which  I 
spake  unto  you,  while  I  was  yet  with  you,  how  that  all  things 
must  needs  be  fulfilled  which  are  written  in  the  law  of  Moses 
and  the  prophets,  and  the  psalms  concerning  Me.  Then  opened 
He  their  mind,  that  they  might  understand  the  Scriptures ; 
and  He  said  unto  them,  '  Thus  it  is  written,  that  the  Christ 

'Mark  xi.  7;   Luke  xix.  35. 

*  Strauss,  The  Life  of  Jesus,  pt.  ii.,  chap,  x.,  p.  no. 


The  Triumphal  Entry  369 

should   suffer,   and   rise   again   from   the   dead   the   third   day, 
etc' "  ^ 

4.  Whatever  antipathy  may  be  cherished  toward  such  corre- 
spondences in  general,  when  we  turn  our  attention  to  this  particu- 
lar instance — Christ's  public  entrance  into  the  capital  City — we 
cannot  fail  to  feel  the  inherent  probability  of  some  such  demon- 
stration in  the  historic  development  of  events  at  this  concluding 
stage  of  His  Ministry.  It  fits  into  the  natural  sequence  of  those 
memorable  occurrences  of  the  last  week;  it  constitutes  a  fitting 
final  appeal  to  the  conscience  and  spirit  of  the  Jews  of  Jeru- 
salem ;  it  precipitates  the  hostile  action  of  the  national  representa- 
tives; and  the  event  itself  is  one  of  those  large,  striking  unfor- 
gettable things  in  a  history  which  could  hardly  be  distorted  in  any 
report  of  it,  and  which  would  meet  with  public  refutation  if, 
not  having  occurred,  it  were  a  fictitious  invention  interpolated 
into  the  oral  tradition  of  Christ's  life.  Any  suggestion  that  He 
deliberately  planned  a  scene  to  fulfil  a  remembered  prophecy 
causes  a  sense  of  shock,  as  something  morally  questionable ;  it  is 
incongruous  with  our  first  general  impression  of  His  character. 
While,  however,  we  have  found  His  Ministry  utterly  void  of  the 
spirit  of  intrigue,  we  have  not  found  it  to  be  without  plan  and 
designed  order  in  its  development.  The  public  life  of  Christ  is 
characterized  by  the  spontaneity,  freshness  and  childlike  guile- 
lessness  of  a  preeminently  pure  personality.  But  while  free  of  all 
dark  designs  and  cold,  political  calculations,  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  He  cherished  definite  plans  and  aims.  He  actually 
claimed,  at  first  implicitly  and  then  articulately  and  unmistakably, 
to  be  God's  Anointed — i.e.  the  Messiah;  and  there  can  be  no 
doubt,  both  in  this  conception  itself  and  in  the  functions  of  His 
ofiice,  that  He  was  very  materially  influenced  by  the  spiritual 
teaching  of  the  Old  Testament.  But  there  was  nothing  of  the 
slavish  literalism  of  rabbinical  pedantry  in  His  treatment  of  the 
Scriptures;  in  Christ's  Ministry,  hermeneutics  proved  to  be  a 
spiritual  science  of  wondrous  breadth  and  liberty.  No  part  of 
His  previous  teaching  prepares  one  to  suspect  that  He  would  em- 
phasize minute  correspondences  between  His  Ministry  and  the 
forecasts  of  the  prophets.  Not  upon  such  flimsy  "  proofs  "  did  He 
ever  base  His  Messianic  convictions,  but  the  consciousness  that 
He  was  called  of  God  for  a  mighty  work  was  suffused  with  large 
*Luke  xxiy.  45,  46. 


370    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

thoughts  and  unique  filial  intimacy  with  the  Heavenly  Father. 
The  correspondences  Christ  realized  in  His  thoughts  were  not 
matters  of  trifling  externality,  or  of  petty  detail;  but  rather  of 
those  grand  ideals  of  truth  which  had  been  present,  in  varying 
grades  of  clearness,  in  the  intuitions  of  all  His  Spiritual  fore- 
runners. The  wish  of  many  readers  to  evade  an  impression  that 
He  Himself  mechanically  adjusted  His  actions  to  fit  in  with 
prophecy,  has  led  them  to  imagine  that  He  was  weary,  and  that 
under  the  guidance  of  self-preserving  instinct  often  exhibited 
in  Nature,  He  may  have  sought  to  save  up  His  strength  in  order 
to  face  the  exhausting  experiences  of  a  later  day.  This  fancy 
is  little  more  than  an  artifice  for  self-deception ;  for  reflection 
reminds  us  that  Jesus  knew  Zechariah's  prophecy  too  well  to  have 
been  unconscious  of  the  correspondence  of  His  own  action  with 
the  description  of  the  Advent  of  the  Prince  of  Peace.  It  cer- 
tainly does  not  fall  in  with  our  impression  of  Jesus  to  say  that 
He  did  this  thing  in  a  fit  of  absent-mindedness  under  the  prompt- 
ing of  fatigue. 

5.  The  explanation  which  most  closely  approximates  to  the 
truth  is  that  Jesus  determined  this  manner  of  entrance  into 
Jerusalem  in  the  spirit  of  one  who  perceives  and  loves  the  innate 
symbolism  of  all  things.  Notwithstanding  His  Hebrew  training, 
He  was  Greek-like  in  the  symmetry  of  His  nature:  as  the  title 
"  the  Son  of  Man  "  implies,  His  humanity  was  catholic ;  and  in 
Him,  to  the  Spirit  of  prophecy  were  joined  all  the  fine  sensibilities 
of  the  artistic  temperament.  We  imagine  that,  had  our  world 
been  unmarred  by  evil  and  sorrow,  the  life  of  the  Son  of  Man 
would  have  expressed  itself  in  the  form  of  absolute  beauty.  The 
parables  of  Jesus  reveal  the  artist's  power  over  form  as  clearly  as 
they  show  the  prophet's  spiritual  and  moral  insight.  Our  rever- 
ence for  the  Person  of  Jesus  ought  not  to  repress  all  reference  to 
the  human  gifts  of  mind  He  exercised.  The  prevailing  tones  of 
His  spoken  thought  were  of  ethical  elevation,  of  human  feeling 
and  of  intellectual  clarity ;  those  who  listened  must  have  been  im- 
pressed by  the  atmosphere  of  comprehensive  wisdom  and  moral 
calm  which  enveloped  His  thought.  But  while  Jesus  often  spoke 
as  Wisdom  Incarnate,  He  sometimes  delivered  Himself  as  the 
apocalyptic  seer,  when  His  words  were  vehement  with  moral  pas- 
sion, boldly  picturesque  in  their  imagery,  and  pregnant  with  the 
concentrated  thought  of  an  original  mind.    In  what  we  have  al- 


The  Triumphal  Entry  371 

ready  stated  concerning  the  correspondences  between  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  facts  of  His  own  Ministry,  we  have  touched 
upon  the  symbolic  trend  of  His  thought.  We  know  of  no  other 
who,  having  read  the  prophetic  deHneation  of  the  Messiah — "  The 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  Me,  because  He  hath  anointed  Me  to 
preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor,  He  hath  sent  Me  to  heal  the  broken- 
hearted, to  preach  deliverance  to  those  in  prison,  and  to  give 
sight  to  the  blind," — and,  having  felt  the  whole  meaning  of  such 
symbolic  language,  would  have  ventured  to  declare  of  him- 
self, "  This  day  is  this  Scripture  fulfilled  in  your  ears."  To  the 
Mind  of  Jesus  all  Nature  was  vocal  of  the  glory  and  goodness  of 
the  Heavenly  Father ;  the  flying  birds  and  waving  corn-fields,  the 
changeful  sky  and  the  affairs  of  men  were  all  bathed  in  the 
translucent  atmosphere  of  religious  poetry.  The  common  daily 
bread  was  the  sacramental  symbolism  of  that  immaterial  nutri- 
ment which  God  imparts  to  the  souls  of  His  children.  Light 
was  to  Him  neither  a  corpuscular  discharge  nor  the  undulations 
of  a  mysterious  ether;  it  was  the  image  of  spiritual  luminosity 
which  the  Divine  Fountain  pours  forth  in  revelation.  Such  sus- 
ceptibility to  the  expression  of  outward  form,  and  this  feeling  for 
the  inherent  symbolism  of  Nature,  account,  we  think,  for  His  ap- 
propriation of  the  imagery  of  Zechariah's  famous  prophecy  of  the 
coming  of  the  King  to  the  daughter  of  Zion.  The  horse  was 
the  recognized  symbol  of  war;  the  ass,  a  symbol  of  a  mission 
wholly  pacific.  Hence  Jesus  resolved  to  show  His  claim  to  be 
the  Prince  of  Peace  by  riding  into  Jerusalem  upon  an  ass. 
Such  a  demonstration  would  be  interpreted  as  Messianic  by  all 
who  were  spiritually  prepared ;  but  no  one  could  mistake  it  for  a 
political  or  military  announcement.  The  Christ  who  had  uttered 
His  wisdom  in  gracious  parables,  who  had  announced  the  fall  of 
Satan  as  lightning  from  Heaven,  now  makes  His  Messianic  ap- 
peal to  Zion  in  the  symbolism  of  Old  Testament  prophecy.  Rid- 
ing into  the  city  as  the  Prince  of  Peace,  Jesus  once  more  com- 
bined those  strange  contraries  of  lowliness  and  majesty,  recon- 
ciling meekness  with  royalty;  making  the  very  humility  of  His 
Progress  express  the  glorious  egoism  of  One  conscious  of  being 
the  appointed  Messiah. 

6.  Passing  from  the  interesting  problem  of  the  motives 
and  purpose  of  Jesus  to  actual  history,  we  surmise  that  the 
owner  of  the  ass's  colt  to  whom  the  disciples  applied  was  a  secret 


372    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

or  an  avowed  friend.  Since  it  was  the  first  day  of  the  Passover- 
week,  the  road  would  be  thronged  with  pilgrims,  and  the  report 
that  the  GaHlean  Prophet  intended  to  make  a  public  official  entry 
into  the  city  would  create  intense  excitement.  The  Galilean  pil- 
grims would  infer  that  some  great  change  had  appeared  in  Jesus 
Himself  since  He  left  them  months  ago;  that  His  idealism  and 
seeming  vacillation  were  giving  place  to  a  practical  and  bold 
policy  of  publicly  claiming  Messianic  honour  in  Jerusalem.  It 
is  evident  also  that  the  disciples  participated  in  the  changed 
feeling  toward  Jesus,  whether  because  of  something  He  had  said 
in  regard  to  this  demonstration,  or  in  spite  of  His  predictions  of 
a  coming  catastrophe,  we  know  not ;  but  a  new  reverence  appears 
in  their  relation  to  Him ;  they  place  a  cloak  over  the  foal,  while 
others  throw  their  garments  in  the  road  as  a  carpet  for  the  beast 
He  rode  upon.  The  enthusiasm  spread,  and  the  people  are 
represented  as  having  strewn  His  path  with  branches  of  trees, 
while  others  came  from  the  city  bearing  fronds  of  palm  in  their 
hands.  With  carping  criticism  some  have  ridiculed  the  idea  of 
spreading  branches  in  the  road  as  offering  incredible  obstructions 
and  dangers ;  and  yet  the  orthodox  custom  in  Russia,  in  funeral 
processions,  is  to  spread  the  route  with  branches  of  fir.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  this  detail  in  the  narrative  has  the  verisimilitude 
which  can  only  be  given  by  historic  truth,  or  by  artistic  skill. 
Upon  the  excited  throngs  there  fell  again  the  power  of  Christ's 
personality ;  and  as  the  contagion  of  enthusiasm  spread,  the  peo- 
ple acclaimed  Jesus  as  Messiah. 

"  Hosanna ! 
Blessed  is  He  that  comes  in  the  name  of  the  Lord! 
Blessed  is  the  kingdom  that  comes,  our  father  David's  kingdom ! 
Hosanna  in  the  highest !  "  * 

7.  Even  before  they  had  reached  the  brow  of  the  hill,  some  of 
the  Pharisees,  annoyed  by  the  abandon  of  popular  feeling,  mur- 
mured that  Jesus  was  inciting  the  people  to  a  new  profanity. 
"  Teacher,"  they  said, "  rebuke  Thy  disciples."  "  If  they  should  be 
silent,"  answered  Jesus,  "the  stones  will  cry  out."  However  limited 
and  defective  the  disciples'  actual  understanding  of  the  aims  of 
their  Master,  at  least  they  showed  a  moral  susceptibility  to  the 
inherent  grandeur  of  His  personality.  It  is  not  impossible  that 
the  three  who  had  witnessed  His  Transfiguration  had  dropped 
incidental  hints  of  the  glory  they  had  seen,  and  if  so,  the  vague 

*Ps.  cxviii.  25,  26;  St.  Luke  substitutes  <J<Jfa  for  Hosanna. 


The  Triumphal  Entry  373 

rumours  of  that  Mountain  Revelation  would  excite  a  mood  of 
intense  expectancy.  As  Jesus  entered  the  capital  the  walls  re- 
echoed the  shouts  of  acclamation,  and  to  all  who  favoured  His 
cause  it  seemed  as  though  He  were  about  to  win  the  City  of 
Zion.  All  their  inherited  dreams  and  hopes  of  national  great- 
ness flamed  up  into  one  brief  hour  of  passionate  expression. 
But  the  very  intensity  of  the  popular  excitement  made  the  in- 
effectual issue  of  Christ's  demonstration  seem  the  clearest  revela- 
tion of  His  impotence.  Through  the  obscurity  of  that  day's 
occurrences  it  is  clear  and  beyond  doubt  that  the  apparent  futihty 
of  His  Messianic  manifestation  created  a  cruel  disappointment 
for  all  the  zealots  among  His  followers.  It  is  true  that  St. 
Matthew  represents  Jesus  as  proceeding  at  once  to  cleanse  the 
temple,  and  states  that  the  "  blind  and  lame  people  came  to  Him 
in  the  temple,  and  He  healed  them  " ;  but  this  seems  a  misplacing 
of  events  that  occurred  at  different  times — some  earlier,  some 
later.  St.  Mark's  account  probably  preserves  the  true  sequence 
in  asserting  that  the  temple-cleansing  took  place  on  the  following 
day.  The  Royal  Progress  seemed  to  terminate  in  a  fiasco ;  all  that 
Jesus  did  was  to  enter  the  sacred  precincts  and  look  around  with 
sad,  wistful  eyes  upon  the  busy  scenes  of  preparation  for  the 
Passover. 

8.  The  splendour  of  the  Messianic  hope  in  connection  with 
the  work  of  Jesus  died  away  as  swiftly  as  the  glory  of  a  sunset 
fades  on  a  threatening  sky.  That  last  fitful  upspringing  of 
national  ambition  in  a  belief  that  Jesus  was  the  Messiah  was  the 
natural  result  of  His  work  in  Perasa.  The  people  could  not  but 
praise  Him  for  His  good  works;  the  miracles  of  healing  which 
they  witnessed  kindled  their  imaginations,  and  they  were  ready 
to  attribute  to  Him  all  sorts  of  power  and  gifts.  While  the 
Master  never  mistook  this  kind  of  popularity  for  spiritual  in- 
sight. He  was  touched  by  such  unsophisticated  admiration  and  in- 
cipient affection ;  it  was,  at  least,  better  than  the  prejudices,  moral 
apathy  and  political  hostility  of  the  ecclesiastics  of  His  day. 
It  has  been  conjectured  that  this  final  demonstration  was  the  evi- 
dence of  unrestrained  fanaticism  in  Jesus  Himself ;  but  we  have 
seen  that  really  He  suffered  no  illusion  to  possess  His  soul  for  a 
single  hour.  He  knew  that  He  was  stepping  on  toward  His 
doom.  And  yet  His  love  for  the  city  of  His  ancestors  clothed 
itself  in  this  prophetic  symbolism,  and  caused  Him  to  make  His 


374    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

last  appeal  to  Jerusalem  for  recognition  of  Himself  as  God's 
Anointed  Son.  Like  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  He  was  commissioned 
to  make  an  appeal  which  He  foreknew  would  be  rejected,  to 
create  an  opportunity  which  no  one  apprehended.  But  those  fol- 
lowers who  had  acclaimed  Him  as  the  Messiah  in  the  morning 
were  chagrined  at  this  disappointing  of  their  hopes ;  when  they 
saw  no  stupendous  miracle,  and  looked  on  Him  as  He  allowed 
His  own  movement  to  flicker  out  without  accomplishing  any- 
thing great,  they  were  angry  with  Him,  feeling  that  He  had 
deluded  them  with  the  words  of  an  empty  dream.  At  the  close 
of  the  day,  as  Jesus  Himself  returned  to  Bethany  with  a  little 
company  of  thwarted  and  silent  disciples,  He  must  have  tasted  all 
the  bitterness  of  failure,  even  while  He  believed  it  was  the  only 
way  to  triumph.  The  morning  and  the  evening  of  that  day  were 
in  painful  contrast;  He  who  had  gone  forth  as  the  Prince  of 
Peace  now  leaves  the  city  lest  the  assassin's  dagger  should  inter- 
cept His  destiny.  Jesus  was  still  dominated  by  the  belief  that 
He  was  appointed  to  die  as  a  public  sacrifice  after  a  trial  and 
rejection  of  Himself  by  the  established  authorities  of  the  nation. 
"  Oh  that  my  head  were  waters,  and  mine  eyes  a  fountain  of 
tears,  that  I  might  weep  day  and  night  for  the  slain  of  the 
daughters  of  my  people."  In  many  ways  the  prophet  Jeremiah 
is  a  type  of  Jesus,  and  the  insight  we  gain  into  the  experience 
of  the  former  aids  us  to  understand  the  tragedy  transpiring  in 
the  heart  of  Jesus  at  this  stage  of  His  Ministry.  He  appealed 
to  Zion  without  the  expectation  of  response;  He  made  a  claim 
which  He  foreknew  would  be  refused ;  He  offered  a  day  of  grace 
which  He  perceived  would  deepen  the  terrors  of  the  city's  con- 
demnation,— this,  we  believe,  is  the  inner  meaning  of  the  history 
of  that  Palm  Sunday ;  it  is  another  step  toward  the  Cross. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  PASSING  DAY  OF  GRACE 

I.  If  ever  there  be  discovered  one  of  the  original  sources  of 
our  Gospels,  the  Christian  Church  may  acquire  such  new  data  as 
will  authoritatively  determine  the  exact  sequence  of  events  dur- 
ing the  Passion  week ;  but  without  more  chronological  data  than 
we  now  possess,  we  must  be  content  with  probability  in  place  of 
of  the  longed-for  certitude.  Should  the  research  of  our  scholars 
bear  no  such  fruit  of  discovery,  the  mere  uncertainty  of  the  order 
of  events  cannot  be  allowed  to  blur  the  indubitable  impressions 
made  by  our  present  records.  In  the  previous  chapter,  we  spoke 
of  Jesus  returning  to  Bethany;  but  it  may  have  been  that  He 
spent  the  night  on  the  Mount  of  Olives.  Whether  He  sat  in  the 
home  of  Lazarus,  or  under  the  open  sky,  He  could  not  but  reflect 
upon  the  momentous  occurrences  of  the  past  day.  Recalling  once 
more  how  the  glad  "  Hosannas  "  of  His  followers  had  left  un- 
softened  the  harsh  hostility  of  the  Jewish  hierarchy,  Jesus  per- 
ceived that  Israel  had  let  slip  a  great  and  notable  opportunity 
of  grace.  The  citizens  of  Jerusalem  were  so  stultified  in  their 
moral  consciousness  that  they  were  unaware  that  the  Day  of  the 
Lord  had  come;  and  through  their  spiritual  unsusceptibility  it 
had  changed  into  a  day  of  judgement.  They  had  not  known  the 
time  of  their  visitation.  That  they  should  have  given  no  adequate 
recognition  of  Jesus  as  the  Prince  of  Peace  may  be  pardonable ; 
but  that  they  rejected  Him  even  as  a  prophet  can  only  be 
accounted  for  by  a  prior  repudiation  of  the  Divine  Presence  from 
their  lives.  In  the  classic  fable,  Apollo  was  unrecognized  but 
not  rejected  by  Admetus ;  by  his  gracious  reception  of  the  un- 
known visitor  the  hospitable  man  ensured  for  his  own  house  a 
divine  and  beneficent  Providence.  Even  in  its  myths  and  legends, 
a  nation  reveals  its  range  and  capacity  of  moral  discernment.  The 
spiritual  blindness  of  Jerusalem  was  demonstrated  in  its  failure 
to  recognize  the  true  Messiah,  but  the  turpitude  of  its  guilt  can 
be  gauged  from,  the  fact  that  Jesus  was  so  menaced  within  its 
walls  that  He  sought  shelter  outside  the  city  night  after  night. 

375 


376    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

The  "  authorities  "  were  not  only  obdurate  in  their  resistance  to 
His  teaching,  but  they  secretly  fomented  murderous  intrigues 
around  Him.  "  I  do  not  wonder  at  what  men  suffer,"  said 
Ruskin,  "  but  I  wonder  often  at  what  they  lose."  The  disap- 
pointment of  the  disciples  that  the  day  had  passed  without  any 
of  the  momentous  results  anticipated,  was  but  a  childish  chagrin 
compared  with  the  prophetic  presentiments  of  doom  that  filled 
the  Mind  of  Jesus.  He  had  foreseen  this  refusal  of  the  Day  of 
Grace ;  yet  now  that  it  had  taken  place,  He  felt  a  mightier  grief 
for  the  doomed  city  of  Jerusalem  than  that  expressed  in  the 
dirges  of  Jeremiah.  Henceforth  a  sleepless  sorrow  possessed 
His  soul,  and  the  night-silence  would  add  keener  poignancy  to 
His  reflections,  bringing  no  relief  of  forgetfulness. 

2.  As  the  second  day  of  the  week  dawned,  Jesus  rose  and, 
calling  His  disciples,  retraced  His  steps  to  the  city.  On  the  way 
He  either  gave  utterance  to  a  parable  which  tradition  sub- 
sequently transformed  into  a  miracle,  or  He  enacted  the  solemn 
parabolic  miracle  of  cursing  the  fruitless  fig-tree.  The  evangelists 
represent  it  as  an  acted  parable,  and  for  the  present  it  seems 
better  to  presume  that  they  gave  a  correct  account  of  Christ's 
prophetic  action.  They  saw  shimmering  in  the  beautiful  sunrise 
the  pleasant  green  leaves  of  a  fig-tree:  since  St.  Mark  tells  us 
that  "  this  was  not  the  season  of  figs,"  we  infer  that  neither 
Jesus  nor  His  disciples  expected  to  find  fruit  thereon.  In  this 
combination  of  rich  foliage  and  fruitlessness,  Jesus  characteristi- 
cally perceived  the  symbol  of  Israel's  history ;  perhaps  He  recalled 
His  own  earlier  parable  ^  of  the  husbandman  who  spared  the  bar- 
ren tree  at  the  vine-dresser's  pleading;  but  now  He  fain  would 
impress  upon  His  disciples  that  the  opportunity  for  reform  had 
gone,  and  after  the  manner  of  the  prophets  He  cursed  the  actual 
tree  on  the  roadside :  "  Never  more  let  anyone  eat  fruit  of  thee !  " 
Surely  no  sane  critic  could  so  misunderstand  the  Spirit  of  Jesus 
as  to  attribute  this  act  to  angry  caprice ;  He  spoke  not  in  childish 
pettishness,  but  in  the  spirit  of  solemn  prophecy.  St.  Matthew 
affirms  that  the  tree  withered  immediately;  St.  Mark,  however, 
states  that  it  was  on  the  following  day  that  Peter  observed  that 
the  tree  was  blasted.  The  supposed  answer  about  the  miraculous 
power  of  faith  reads  like  an  interpolation  of  something  spoken- 
at   another   time.     Placed   in   its   proper   connection   with   the 

*Luke  xiii.  6-9. 


The  Passing  Day  of  Grace  377 

thoughts  and  feehngs  of  Jesus  at  this  stage  of  His  Ministry,  the 
incident,  whether  looked  upon  as  a  spoken  or  as  an  acted  parable, 
is  prophetic  of  the  doom  which  would  fall  alike  upon  a  fruitless 
nation  and  upon  a  self-deceiving  disciple. 

3.  The  episode  of  Christ's  lament  over  the  beautiful  city 
which  St.  Luke  makes  to  interrupt  the  triumphal  procession  of 
Palm  Sunday,  may  have  fitly  taken  place  on  this  following  day, 
when  He  Himself  was  overwhelmed  with  His  presentiment  of  the 
city's  unescapable  catastrophe.  Had  Jerusalem  received  Him  as 
its  Spiritual  Messiah  in  the  time  of  Divine  visitation,  it  might 
have  been  saved;  but  now  He  saw  it  threatened  with  evils  that 
no  one  could  ward  off.  As  He  came  over  the  ridge  of  hills  and 
caught  another  glimpse  of  its  towers  and  palaces  resplendent  in 
the  morning  light,  the  terrible  contrast  between  that  outward 
spectacle  and  the  inner  vision  upon  which  He  had  brooded 
through  the  night  hours,  smote  a  poignant  regret  into  His  pa- 
triotic spirit  and  He  sobbed  aloud.^ 

"  Would  that  thou  hadst  known  the  things  that  tend  to  thy  peace !    Even 

thou,  even  at  this  day ! 
But  now  it  is  hidden  from  thine  eyes — 
Because  days  will  come  upon  thee, 
When  thine  enemies  will  throw  up  a  palisaded  mound  round  thee,  and 

surround  thee. 
And  besiege  thee  on  every  side. 

When  they  will  dash  thee  and  thy  children  within  thee  to  the  ground, 
When  they  shall  not  leave  one  stone  upon  another  within  thee, 
Because  thou  didst  not  recognize  the  time  of  thy  visitation." 

As  Amos  had  foreseen  the  Assyrian  terror  in  his  day,  so  Jesus 
foresaw  the  avalanche  of  Roman  power  which  was  to  destroy 
the  city.  This  is  not  surprising;  for  even  Caiaphas  had  dis- 
cerned, in  a  confused  way,  the  true  drift  and  direction  of  the 
current  of  history  when  he  precipitated  the  policy  of  the  San- 
hedrim in  relation  to  Jesus.  The  day  of  Israel's  opportunity 
had  almost  ended,  yet  even  at  that  eleventh  hour  a  genuine  re- 
pentance and  faith  in  Jesus  might  have  saved  the  city  of  Jeru- 
salem from  destruction  and  prevented  the  dispersion  of  the  Jews. 
Like  the  prophets  of  the  eighth  century  B.C.,  Jesus  believed  in  the 
victorious  energy  of  moral  life  as  more  potent  than  material 
forces; — by  receiving  Himself  and  adopting  His  teaching,  Jeru- 
salem might  have  been  maintained  inviolate  even  against  the 
*  Luke  xix.  41-44,  iK?(avaev. 


378    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

invincible  legions  of  Rome.  How  such  a  triumph  of  spiritual 
power  could  have  been  secured,  we  do  not  know;  but  we  may 
assume  that  the  Word  of  God  would  have  been  as  signally  vin- 
dicated and  victorious  in  the  days  of  Caesar  as  it  had  been  in 
those  of  Sennacherib. 

4.  The  problem  whether  there  were  one  or  two  instances  of 
-Christ's  expulsion  of  the  traders  from  the  temple,  and  if  one, 
whether  it  occurred  at  the  beginning  or  at  the  end  of  the  ministry, 
may  be  the  subject  of  endless  debate;  but  until  fresh  light  is 
thrown  upon  the  life  of  Jesus,  no  certainty  can  be  arrived  at. 
Dr.  A.  Plummer  regards  it  as  reasonably  certain  that  there  were 
two  temple-cleansings ;  but  other  scholars  of  high  repute  have 
their  doubts.  Our  reiterated  belief  that  St.  John  designed  to 
correct  some  of  the  mistaken  inferences  occasioned  by  the 
Synoptic  traditions  allows  us  to  admit  the  possible  repetition  of 
this  incident.  If  in  this  particular  case,  however,  we  must  re- 
gard the  Johannine  and  Marcan  "  placing  "  of  Christ's  bold  protest 
against  the  profanation  of  the  temple  as  alternatives,  then  we 
acknowledge  that  it  "  fits  in  "  most  naturally  at  the  conclusion 
of  the  ministry.  With  his  accustomed  observation  of  personal 
traits  St.  Marie  states  that  on  the  day  of  His  Triumphal  Entry 
Jesus  came  to  the  temple  and  looked  round  on  everything.  What 
He  saw  was  repugnant  to  His  own  ideas  of  a  pure,  spiritual 
religion ;  and  when  on  the  following  day  He  may  have  witnessed 
some  attempt  to  defraud  one  of  the  worshippers.  His  indignation 
burst  forth  in  vehement  protest.  Dr.  Edersheim  narrates  how 
Simeon,  the  grandson  of  Hillel,  once  saw  a  glaring  fraud  in  the 
temple  which  provoked  him  to  interfere  between  a  seller  and 
buyer;  and  by  his  interference  he  brought  down  the  price  of  a 
pair  of  doves  from  a  gold  denar  to  half  a  silver  one.  To  the 
mind  of  Jesus,  the  whole  scene — the  bartering,  with  its  dis- 
putes about  exorbitant  and  oppressive  charges,  and  the  con- 
fusion and  noise  as  of  a  cattle  market — was  offensively  dis- 
cordant with  all  His  conceptions  of  worship;  and,  incensed  be- 
yond all  self-repression  by  this  degradation  of  the  national 
faith,  He  sought  to  purify  His  Father's  House.  He  could  not 
allow  it  to  seem  that  He  was  indifferent  to  the  robbery  practised 
under  the  aegis  of  temple  privileges  in  the  interests  of  the  priests ; 
He  was  stirred  to  the  depths  with  righteous  anger.  Perceiving 
that  His  voice  would  be  drowned  in  that  tumult,  Jesus  adopted  a 


The  Passing  Day  of  Grace  379 

new  and  strange  method  of  cleansing  the  sanctuary;  snatching 
up  some  pieces  of  cord,  He  plaited  them  into  a  whip,  and  with 
flaming  indignation  intrepidly  opposed  the  whole  priesthood, 
driving  out  the  cattle  and  sellers  and  upsetting  the  tables  of 
the  money-changers.  "  Is  it  not  written,"  He  said,  taking  up  the 
language  of  Jeremiah,  "  that  My  house  shall  be  called  a  house  of 
prayer  for  all  nations?  And  ye  have  made  it  a  den  of  thieves?  " 
In  this  manner  He  displayed  the  zeal  for  Jehovah's  House  which 
first  began  to  be  felt  by  Him  when  He  was  only  twelve  years  of 
age.  It  is  impossible  to  say  that  Jesus  hoped  for  an  immediate 
and  permanent  religious  reform;  but  His  act  was,  at  least,  a 
rebuke  which  appealed  to  the  national  conscience  to  throw  off 
the  incubus  of  priestly  avarice.  Many  a  patriot  who  looked  at 
the  presence  of  the  Roman  soldiers  as  an  intolerable  indignity, 
had  endured,  without  protest,  the  more  awful  degradation  of 
priestly  tyranny;  now  to  them  the  daring  courage  of  Jesus'  act 
appealed,  and  they  sympathized  with  this  revival  of  the  Spirit 
of  the  Maccabees,  although  they  could  not  appreciate  His  estima- 
tion of  the  Romans  as  instruments  of  Divine  retribution.  Jesus 
smote  upon  the  national  conscience;  He  revolted  against  the 
desecration  of  the  House  of  Prayer,  and  sought  to  save  the  poor 
from  the  impositions  of  an  avaricious  priesthood.  Let  those  who 
have  confused  His  habitual  meekness  with  weakness,  remember 
this  fiery,  passionate  protest  against  a  great  wrong. 

5.  "  The  Jews,"  i.e.  the  clergy  of  that  age,  were  wrathful  at 
this  attack  upon  their  privileges,  but  conscience  made  them 
cowards:  so  that,  instead  of  seeking  a  swift  retaliation,  they 
could  but  weakly  ask  for  a  sign  to  justify  His  claim  to  wield  a 
spiritual  authority.  "  Destroy  this  temple,"  answered  Jesus, 
"  and  in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up."  Writing  long  afterwards, 
St.  John  applied  this  enigmatic  saying  to  the  temple  of  His 
body;  but  we  find  in  it  a  triumphant  faith  which  foresaw  the 
overthrow  of  the  central  fane  of  corrupt  Judaism,  and  yet  antici- 
pated the  rise  of  a  spiritual  temple  or  Church  from  the  ruins  of 
the  old.  Renan  has  treated  this  ambiguous  utterance  as  a  token 
of  "  His  bad  humour  against  the  temple."  But  whatever  the 
exegesis  of  this  ambiguous  logion,  there  can  be  no  mistake  in 
attributing  the  paradox  to  Jesus,  since  it  was  cited  against  Him 
at  His  trial.  The  action  of  Jesus  provoked  new  hopes  in  the 
minds  of  the  devout,  and,  encouraged  by  these,  the  youths  caught 


380    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

up  again  the  refrain  which  had  reverberated  through  the  city 
on  the  previous  day :  "  Hosanna  to  the  Son  of  David !  "  It  was 
a  time  of  spiritual  ferment,  and  seeing  Him  strike  a  blow  at  the 
wrongs  which  had  the  sanction  of  an  aristocratic  priesthood,  the 
people  once  more  expected  Him  to  assume  the  role  of  the  Mes- 
sianic Reformer.  When  the  offended  dignitaries  complained  that 
Jesus  allowed  the  juveniles  to  shout  "  Hosanna,"  He  asked  them, 
"  Have  you  never  read,  From  the  mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings 
Thou  hast  fashioned  praise  ? "  We  scruple  to  accept,  at  this 
juncture,  St.  Matthew's  statement  that  the  lame  and  blind  came  to 
Him  in  the  temple — deeming  it  a  transposition  from  some  other 
context;  and  we  prefer  St.  Mark's  vaguer  affirmation,  that  He 
taught  the  people,  as  probably  more  correct.  Jesus  was  deliber- 
ately enacting  the  last  part  of  His  Messianic  demonstration  in 
Jerusalem,  and  it  appears  that  the  very  boldness  of  what  He  did 
and  said  smote  His  opponents  with  a  temporary  paralysis  of 
will.  How  utterly  changed  were  the  tactics  of  Jesus  from  those 
He  formerly  pursued!  All  reticence  had  passed  away;  He  was 
explicit  and  authoritative  in  Messianic  claims,  swift  and  over- 
whelming in  His  actions.  He  threw  down  the  gauntlet  before 
the  whole  hierarchy,  resolved  that  they  should  openly  acknowl- 
edge or  reject  Him.  The  Day  of  Grace  is  swiftly  passing,  and 
Jesus  forces  His  opponents  to  declare  either  for,  or  against  Him. 

6.  The  Messiah  had  already  designated  the  chief  priests, 
scribes  and  elders  as  the  guilty  agents  who  were  destined  to 
deliver  Him  to  be  crucified.  His  present  challenge  of  their  official 
prerogatives  could  not  be  passed  unheeded ;  therefore,  they  once 
again  inquired  by  what  authority  He  did  these  things,  and  fur- 
ther, who  gave  Him  such  authority.  They  could  not  fail  to 
observe  that  Jesus  became  ever  more  pronounced  in  His  self- 
assertion  ;  and  these  men,  being  the  legalized  leaders  of  Judaism, 
were  bound  to  observe  His  tremendous  pretensions  and  personal 
claims.  It  was  the  culminating  point  of  the  quarrel  between 
prophet  and  priest — between  intuition  and  pedantry,  between 
rabbinic  book-lore  and  spiritual  insight,  between  the  privileges 
of  a  caste  and  the  inherent  worth  of  a  Great  Soul.  Those  ques- 
tioners would  fain  have  demonstrated  to  the  people  that  Jesus 
was  a  mere  charlatan  and  pretender.  Instead  of  reiterating 
His  Divine  commission,  Jesus  resolved  to  show  these  interro- 
gators that  they  were  blind  to  reason  and  dead  to  conscience. 


The  Passing  Day  of  Grace  381 

At  the  beginning  of  His  Ministry  John  the  Baptist  had  borne 
testimony  that  He  was  the  "  Coming  One  " :  hence,  if  they  ac- 
knowledged John  to  be  a  prophet,  they  ought  logically  to  admit 
the  Messianic  claim  of  Jesus.  This  link  between  the  first  opening 
scene  of  Christ's  Ministry  and  His  last  appeal  in  the  temple, 
confirms  our  behef  that  the  final  claims  of  Divine  authority 
made  by  Jesus  in  those  last  days  were  implicit  in  His  first  assump- 
tion of  public  duty.  Having  incidentally  remarked  this  note  of 
continuous  development  in  His  Ministry  we  must  seek  to  under- 
stand why  Jesus  did  not  explicitly  and  directly  answer  the  ques- 
tion about  His  Divine  commission.  We  must  not  look  upon  this 
scene  as  a  mere  encounter  of  wits,  in  which  Jesus  gained  a 
notable  victory;  it  was,  surely,  more  than  that.  He  referred  to 
the  Baptism  of  John  as  a  matter  of  historic  fact  with  which  they 
were  familiar,  and  as  something  which  turned  the  moral  order 
of  life  into  a  sacrament,  for  it  was  the  Baptism  of  Repentance. 
Jesus  knew  that  it  would  be  sheerest  folly  to  speak  of  things 
of  highest  spirituality  to  men  who  were  sunk  in  the  delusions  of 
sense ;  to  point  to  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  when  His  questioners 
wGre  blinded  by  pride.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  limitations 
of  John's  ministry,  it  had  made  its  primary  appeal  to  conscience 
and  it  aimed  at  righteousness.  Now,  unless  these  haughty 
priests  and  their  allies  were  ready  to  admit  the  facts  of  the 
moral  world;  unless  they  acknowledged  the  reality  of  guilt  and 
man's  need  of  repentance,  they  could  not  possibly  understand  an 
authority  which  was  essentially  built  upon  these  foundations  of 
the  moral  order  of  life.  Those  who  cherish  a  lie  in  the  soul  will 
ever  be  blind  to  the  reality  of  spiritual  truth.  Those  members  of 
the  Jewish  hierarchy  were  thrown  on  the  horns  of  a  dilemma; 
they  were  afraid  to  deny  the  prophetic  vocation  of  John,  and 
yet  they  were  resolved  not  to  admit  the  authority  of  his  Suc- 
cessor. St.  Luke  affirms  that  they  feared  the  people  would  stone 
them  if  they  maligned  John.^  While  in  their  outward  profes- 
sions the  priests  and  Pharisees  paraded  their  religion  before 
men,  in  conduct  they  resembled  the  son  in  the  parable  who  prom- 
ised to  work  and  then  wilfully  disobeyed.  It  was  the  irony  of 
history  that  the  official  representatives  of  religion  were  apostates 
by  reason  of  their  spiritual  hardness,  while  the  excommunicated 
prodigals  became  penitent,  and  the  outcasts  are  brought  into 

*  "  Timentes   lapidationem,   sed   timentes  veritatis  conf  essionem," — Thi 
Ven,  Bede.     Inter.  Com.  Luke  xx.  i-8.     Plummer. 


382    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

God's  Reign  by  moral  awakenment.  The  stereotyped  ceremonial- 
ism of  the  priests  had  killed  the  spirit  which  first  created  it. 
Jesus  said  to  them/ 

"I  tell  you  truly, 
The  tax-gatherers  and  the  harlots  go  before  you  into  the  kingdom  of  God. 
For  John  came  in  the  way  of  uprightness,  yet  you  did  not  believe  him, 
But  the  tax-gatherers  and  the  harlots  believed  him ; 
And  though  you  saw  it,  you  did  not  even  repent  afterwards  and  believe 
him." 

7.  The  cycle  of  parables  belonging  to  this  stage  of  the  Ministry 
of  Jesus  all  bespeak  the  sorrow  He  felt  at  the  passing  away  of  the 
Day  of  Grace  and  the  approach  of  Divine  Judgement.  "  The 
harvest  is  past,  the  summer  is  ended,  and  we  are  not  saved." 
Two  of  these  parables,  referring  to  the  rejection  of  God's  Son, 
were  spoken  on  the  Monday  or  Tuesday.  The  vision  of  Jesus 
comprehends  the  past,  present  and  future,  and  Israel's  history 
and  destiny  are  set  forth  with  incomparable  moral  insight  and 
accuracy.  The  sorrow  of  Jesus  was  no  narrow  vexation  of 
thwarted  self-love ;  it  was  the  agony  of  the  patriot  who  foresees 
the  ruin  of  his  fatherland ;  it  was  the  grief  a  prophet  feels  at  see- 
ing the  theocratic  race  stultify  its  Divine  election.  Jesus  affirms 
His  own  organic,  vital  relationship  with  the  historic  revelation  of 
all  the  past ;  He  does  not  stir  up  some  side  issue ;  He  Himself  is 
the  Son  who  comes  after  God's  Servants,  the  prophets.  He  claims 
to  be  the  spiritual  fruit  of  that  tree  which  Jehovah  planted;  in 
Him,  He  affirms,  the  Old  Covenant  is  consummated,  and  through 
Him  a  new  race  is  begun.  His  prevision  of  the  rejection  of 
Himself  by  the  official  representatives  of  the  nation  never  wav- 
ers; this,  indeed,  will  be  the  climax  of  Israel's  repudiations  of 
the  whole  series  of  Divine  visitations,  and  as  a  consequence  a 
dreadful  retribution  will  swiftly  follow.  In  the  parable  ^  Jesus 
uttered,  the  vineyard  is  let  out  to  wicked  tenants,  who,  when  the 
over-lord  sent  for  his  rent,  revolted  and  put  his  messengers  to 
shame.  At  last  the  owner  sends  his  son  to  them,  thinking  that 
to  him,  at  least,  the  tenants  will  show  respect.  But  as  soon  as  the 
heir  arrives  those  evil-minded  men  arise  and  murder  him.  Al- 
though the  movement  of  the  parable  is  compressed  into  a  single 
season,  the  drama  of  history  it  describes  has  been  going  on  for 
centuries.     Before   His   hearers   understood   the   application   to 

'  Godet  thinks  that  the  parable  of  the  Two  Sons  is  misplaced. 
'Luke  XX.  9-19;  Matt.  xxi.  33-46;  Mark  xii,  1-12. 


The  Passing  Day  of  Grace  383 

themselves,  Jesus  asked  of  them  what  the  owner  of  the  vine- 
yard will  do.  "  He  will  miserably  destroy  those  bad  men,"  said 
they ;  and  then,  as  some  perceived  His  meaning,  they  quickly  ex- 
claimed, "  Away  with  the  thought !  "  ^  They  saw  that  the  vineyard 
was  the  Church  or  Israel  of  God,  that  the  wicked  tenants  repre- 
sent successive  generations  of  a  priestly  caste  and  of  official 
teachers,  and  that  their  living  representatives  were  even  now 
intriguing  to  slay  Jesus,  "  the  beloved  Son."  ^  St.  Mark  makes  it 
plain  that  the  angry  priests  perceived  the  meaning  of  this  great, 
sad  parable  of  their  nation's  history — rejected  opportunities  and 
coming  doom;  and  so  inflamed  was  their  hatred  of  the  Speaker, 
they  would  fain  have  arrested  Him  at  once,  but  were  afraid  of 
the  partisans  of  Jesus,  who  had  evinced  sympathy  with  His  at- 
tempt to  purge  the  temple. 

8.  Jesus  also  taught  that  there  are  checks  and  limits  to  the 
power  of  God's  enemies ;  and  the  intended  frustration  of  the 
Divine  Purpose  becomes  a  means  for  its  final  accomplishment. 
His  great  revealing  words  cannot  be  adequately  explained  in  the 
ordinary  perspective  of  earth ;  He  spoke  as  one  whose  vision 
comprehended  two  worlds.  According  to  His  own  view.  He  was 
not  merely  caught  in  the  conflict  of  human  wills;  but  He  be- 
lieved that  He  was  combating  the  malignant  designs  of  the  devil 
and  of  evil  spirits.  Whether  this  aspect  of  His  teaching  will 
ultimately  be  treated  as  an  accidental  inheritance  of  Jewish  super- 
stition or  as  an  authoritative  and  revelatory  part  of  the  doctrine 
of  Jesus,  cannot  be  lightly  pronounced  upon.  While  there  are 
many  thoughtful  men  who  reject  the  idea  of  a  mighty  personal 
will  of  evil  as  an  unnecessary  hypothesis,  there  are  others  who 
think  that  the  phenomena  of  human  life  justify  the  old  Jewish 
belief  in  "  possession."  But,  avoiding  all  academic  discussion,  we 
dare  not  overlook  the  fact  that  the  belief  in  demoniacal  possession 
formed  one  of  the  factors  in  the  mind  of  Jesus;  He  Himself 
explicitly  affirmed  that  He  came  to  destroy  the  works  of  the 
devil.  It  is  very  significant  that  the  highest  literary  products 
of  genius  and  imagination  are  based  upon  the  idea  that  man's 
life  has  cosmic  and  extra-temporal  relationships.  The  insights 
of  genius  approximate  closely  to  the  intuitions  of  prophecy. 
The  Passion  of  Jesus  was  no  merely  passing  scene  of  a  marionette 
play  in  the  squalid  politics  of  Rome's  subject  province  of  Judaea; 

*  fi^  ykvoiTO.  ^Tov  vlov  fwv  rbv  ayairriT&v. 


384    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

rather  must  it  be  thought  of  as  a  mighty  drama  of  the  universal 
conflict  between  God's  righteousness  and  the  world's  wrong. 
Jesus  Himself  gave  a  graduated  disclosure  of  the  mighty  spiritual 
conflict  in  which  He  was  engaged,  showing  first  the  inevitability 
of  His  rejection,  the  agents  who  would  be  involved  in  His  mar- 
tyrdom, the  fitness  of  such  a  consummation  of  the  line  of  sacrifice 
running  all  through  Jewish  history;  then  accentuating  successive 
aspects  of  His  death  as  an  event  involving  some  mysterious  ne- 
cessity, predestined  to  issue  in  spiritual  triumph,  as  of  the  nature 
of  a  ransom  for  man's  emancipation — as  His  own  last  mighty 
act  of  will  for  the  saving  of  the  lost.  And  now  once  more  Jesus 
attempted  to  impress  upon  His  hearers  in  the  temple  the  fact 
of  an  overruling  Power  of  God  which  would  make  even  the  wills 
of  His  enemies  subserve  the  accomplishment  of  a  Divine  Work. 
The  high-priests,  scribes  and  Pharisees  believed  that  if  they 
could  put  Jesus  to  death,  the  movement  initiated  by  Him  would 
come  to  an  end.  Jesus  repels  this  delusion  in  His  parable  of 
the  Rejected  Stone.^  The  stone  rejected  by  the  builders  as  unfit 
for  "  the  extreme  sharp  edge  of  the  building  "  is  finally  chosen 
to  become  the  "  crown  of  the  right  angle  of  the  four  sides  of  the 
square  building,  protecting  and  supporting  the  stately  fabric." 
Thus  did  Jesus,  in  view  of  His  own  imminent  trial,  while  re- 
newing His  solemn  anticipations  of  death,  predict  for  Himself, 
under  the  figure  of  the  Rejected  Stone,  a  certain  attainment  of 
exaltation  and  dignity  in  the  great  Spiritual  Temple  of  Human- 
ity. Then,  with  an  abrupt  turn  of  speech  He  represented  the 
corner-stone  as  falling  upon  the  rejecters  in  dreadful  retribution. 

9.  A  further  judgement-parable  was  drawn  from  Him  as  He 
perceived  the  murderous  wishes  of  His  enemies.  Once  again 
Jesus  gave  renewed  emphasis  both  to  His  own  indestructible 
consciousness  of  Royal  dignity  and  to  His  assurance  of  Spiritual 
inheritance  after  death.  Whatever  the  exact  place  for  His  de- 
liverance of  this  parable  of  the  Marriage  Feast,  it  unmistakably 
belongs  to  a  time  when  the  hatred  of  Jesus  by  the  Jewish  rulers 
could  neither  be  concealed  nor  disguised.  The  thought  of  the 
parable  is  pregnant  with  Jesus'  Messianic  conception  of  the 
Kingdom ;  and  one  writer  suggests  that  the  feast  is  connected 
not  only  with  the  wedding,  but  also  with  the  accession  of  the 
Son  and  Heir  to  the  Throne :  therefore  the  refusal  of  the  invited 

*Luke  XX.  17-19,  LXX.  Ps.  cxviii.  22-23,  Delitzsch. 


The  Passing  Day  of  Grace  385 

guests  is  not  merely  discourteous  but  also  disloyal  and  re- 
bellious. The  repeated  invitations  alluded  to  in  the  parable  de- 
scribe the  several  missions — i.e.  of  the  Baptist,  of  the  Twelve 
and  of  the  Seventy ;  but,  since  the  rebels  treated  the  King's  mes- 
sengers with  such  malignant  cruelty,  the  Sovereign  will  destroy 
them  and  burn  their  city.  Then,  in  striking  words,  Jesus  adds  to 
the  thought  of  the  Divine  rejection  of  the  Jews  that  of  the  elec- 
tion of  other  peoples.  "  The  Marriage  is  ready,  but  those  who 
were  invited  were  not  worthy.  Go  to  the  cross-roads,  then,  and 
invite  as  many  people  as  you  find  to  the  marriage-feast."  The 
further  addition  to  this  parable  concerning  the  guest  without  the 
wedding  garment  may  have  been  spoken  by  Jesus  at  another 
time,  for  it  belongs  to  an  entirely  different  set  of  ideas.  Strauss 
identifies  it  with  the  parable  of  the  Great  Supper,  and  prefers 
the  Lucan  version  as  more  correct.^  It  is  possible,  however,  that, 
just  as  Jesus  repeated,  in  word  or  act,  His  earlier  parable  of  the 
fig-tree  in  these  days,  so  He  may  likewise  have  deliberately 
taken  up  one  of  His  well-known  parables  of  grace,  and  by  a  new 
turn  of  speech  made  it  a  message  of  doom  to  those  men  who 
scorn  the  overtures  of  God's  mercy.  If  so.  He  also  extended 
its  application  to  declare  that  there  will  be  no  lack  of  guests 
at  the  Marriage  Feast,  signifying  that  the  Kingdom  of  God 
will  not  be  abandoned  though  the  Jews,  the  first  invited,  cut 
themselves  off  by  rebellion. 

lo.  Thus,  in  the  Mind  of  Jesus,  the  passing  of  Israel's  Day 
of  Grace  heralded  the  ingathering  of  the  Gentiles.  As  we  read 
this  cycle  of  Judgement-parables,  we  are  amazed  at  the  world- 
wide compass  of  Christ's  vision,  and  affected  by  the  deep  pathos 
of  the  swift  alternations  of  His  sorrow  and  hope.  Again,  it 
may  be  reiterated  that  these  marvellous  utterances  are  a  message 
not  only  to  Israel,  but  to  the  whole  world.  "  In  Him  do  the 
Gentiles  hope ; "  or,  as  the  prediction  runs  in  Hebrew,  "  the  isles 
shall  wait  for  His  law."  Jesus  makes  us  think  of  Himself  as  the 
centre  of  all  human  history;  all  the  movements  of  past  millen- 
niums converge  upon  His  sacrifice ;  and,  according  to  His  antici- 
pation, from  His  Cross  will  radiate  new  moral  energies  that 
shall  achieve  the  triumph  of  God's  Reign  on  the  earth.  At  that 
moment  of  His  Ministry  the  heart  of  Jesus  was  full  of  a  patriotic 
sorrow,  and  yet  He  foresaw  that  the  temporary  defeat  of  the 

*Luke   xiv.  15-24. 


386    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

Divine  Counsel  in  the  world  will  issue  in  assured  triumph. 
Jesus  was  caught  in  the  swellings  of  the  Jordan ;  and  yet  though 
death  confronted  Him,  He  made  no  effort  to  escape,  believing 
that  His  death  itself  would  secure  the  conquest  of  the  world  for 
His  Father.  We  do  not  wonder  that  those  critics  who  start 
with  the  presupposition  that  Jesus  could  not  be  different  from 
ordinary  men,  should  be  driven  to  hint  that  at  this  stage  He  lost 
His  mental  balance.  There  is  a  colossal  egoism  in  these  parables ; 
He  set  Himself  forth  as  the  end  of  the  law  and  the  prophets; 
the  previous  messengers  from  God  are  presented  under  the  figure 
of  slaves,  while  Jesus  is  the  beloved  Son.  Yet  what  marvellous 
intellectual  power  He  exhibited  at  this  juncture,  summing  up,  in 
a  series  of  pictorial  parables,  the  whole  sweep  of  Israel's  past — 
throwing  out  deep  suggestions  of  a  new  world-wide  evangel  for 
the  future!  If  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  men  may  find  "  the  supreme 
and  classical  product  "  of  religious  philosophy,  yet  this  philosophy 
of  History  and  Revelation  is  first  found  in  the  Consciousness  of 
Jesus  which  the  Synoptic  Gospels  reflect  for  us  in  these  parables 
of  the  Passion-week.  Instead  of  first  foisting  upon  the  Gospels 
a  naturalistic  presumption  of  what  Jesus  ought  to  have  been, 
it  is  far  wiser  to  allow  Him  to  make  His  own  noble  great  im- 
pression upon  our  minds  by  taking  cognizance  of  all  the  data  of 
His  Ministry.  Those  who  assume  that  the  epistolary  New  Testa- 
ment conception  of  Christ  must  be  the  baseless  fabric  of  a  dream, 
and  set  out  to  restrict  the  Ministry  of  Jesus  to  the  brief  span  of 
three  years,  can  retain  this  view  only  by  doing  violence  to  the 
data  of  the  Gospels,  and  refusing  to  accept  these  parables  of 
Judgement  anl  evangelic  hopes. 


CHAPTER  IV 

ATTACK  AND  COUNTER-ATTACK 

I.  One  of  the  difficulties  encountered  in  any  attempt  to  por- 
tray the  Ministry  of  Jesus  is  to  preserve  the  balance  between 
His  autonomy  and  His  subordination  to  the  operation  of  ordinary 
forces.  Although  an  unbiassed  study  of  the  Gospels  convinces 
us  that  there  was  in  Him  some  transcendent  quality  or  nature 
that  men  have  called  Divine,  we  are  also  bound  to  acknowledge 
His  submission  to  the  natural  conditions  and  limitations  of  human 
experience.  From  the  point  of  view  of  His  autonomy,  we  look 
upon  Christ's  death  as  a  Sacrifice  replete  with  ethical  and  spiritual 
values,  but  regarding  Him  as  the  subject  of  natural  laws,  en- 
vironed by  an  historical  order,  we  are  led  to  view  His  Suffering 
and  Crucifixion  as  the  inevitable  result  of  His  conflict  with  the 
Jewish  hierarchy.  These  two  aspects  of  human  experience  are 
so  far  from  being  incompatible,  that  they  meet  us  at  every  turn 
in  the  study  of  the  phenomena  of  man's  life.  It  is  an  instance 
of  what  Kant  termed  the  third  antinomy  of  Pure  Reason,  and 
which  he  stated  thus :  "  Thesis — Causality,  according  to  the  laws 
of  Nature,  is  not  the  only  causality  from  which  all  the  phenom- 
ena of  the  world  can  be  derived.  A  causality  of  freedom  is 
also  necessary  to  account  fully  for  these  phenomena."  "An- 
tithesis,— There  is  no  freedom,  but  all  that  comes  to  be  in  the 
world  happens  solely  in  accordance  with  laws  of  Nature."  ^  The 
true  solution  of  this  antinomy  will  not  be  found  in  an  exclusion 
of  thesis  or  of  antithesis;  it  must  be  sought  in  reconciliation  of 
both  through  some  conception  of  man  which  comprehends  his 
sensuous  state  and  his  inward  intelligence  or  spiritual  nature. 
Applying  this  rule  to  the  Ministry  of  Jesus,  we  must  give  full 
heed  to  His  self-determining  intelligence,  and  at  the  same  time  ob- 
serve Him  as  the  Object  of  a  natural  historical  order.  In  follow- 
ing this  latter  method  first,  we  shall  by  no  means  exclude  from 
our  reflection  that  other  view  of  Jesus  without  which  there  would 
have  been  neither  a  Church  nor  a  Christology.    We  shall  show, 

*  The  Critique  of  Pure  Reason.    Trans.  Dial.,  bk.  ii. 
387 


388    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

therefore,  first  that  the  development  of  the  final  stage  of  Christ's 
Ministry  was  outwardly  determined  by  the  attacks  made  upon 
Jesus  by  the  legitimate  leaders  of  the  nation.  These  authorities 
saw  that  the  time  had  come  when  they  must  either  extinguish 
the  movement  of  Jesus  or  be  themselves  extinguished.  He  was 
undermining  their  authority.  Either  they  must  acknowledge  Him 
to  be  the  Divinely  Anointed  One  whom  the  prophets  had  antici- 
pated, or  they  must  begin  to  overthrow  Him  by  discrediting  His 
Ministry  in  the  eyes  of  the  people.  Although  two  or  three  of  the 
Sanhedrists  secretly  favoured  the  claims  of  Jesus,  the  over- 
whelming majority  of  the  Council  proudly  and  scornfully  re- 
jected them.  Their  conduct  reveals  the  triumph  of  caste  preju- 
dices, and  is  the  most  flagrant  instance  of  the  blindness  of  ortho- 
dox Israel  to  the  self-attesting  splendour  of  the  realized  moral 
ideal.  The  very  privileges  of  their  positions,  wealth  and  learning, 
created  a  disturbing  bias  against  Jesus,  or  surely  they  must 
have  been  constrained  to  have  confessed,  "  Thou  art  the  Messiah, 
the  Son  of  the  Living  God." 

2.  St.  Luke  relates  that  during  those  last  few  days,  Jesus 
evening  by  evening  went  away  from  the  temple  to  spend  the 
night  on  the  hill  called  "  the  Olive  Orchard."  Such  daily  with- 
drawals of  His  presence  may  have  been  dictated  by  prudence ;  for 
not  only  was  assassination  possible  on  the  part  of  His  enemies, 
but  there  was  also  the  danger  lest  His  own  friends  might,  under 
cover  of  darkness,  encourage  some  conspiracy  against  the  estab- 
lished government.  A  merely  political  demagogue  would  have 
acted  very  differently,  but  Jesus  kept  steadily  before  Himself 
the  exclusively  spiritual  nature  of  His  mission.  We  cannot  but 
think  that  the  sad,  silent  hours  of  those  last  nights  were  spent 
by  Him  in  prayer  and  meditation.  The  strain  of  the  struggle 
going  on  was  intense  and  exhausting,  and  it  was  needful  that  His 
wasted  energies  should  be  repaired  by  spiritual  communion.  How 
much  or  how  little  of  the  time  was  spent  in  sleep,  we  have  no 
means  of  determining ;  we  only  know  that  the  days  were  crowded 
with  incidents  which  drew  forth  the  final,  solemn  teachings 
recorded  of  this  ministry.  It  might  have  been  supposed  that  the 
last  remembered  transpirings  of  Christ's  fleshly  life  would  have 
been  clearly  assigned  to  the  several  days;  yet,  as  it  is,  we  are 
uncertain  of  the  chronological  sequence  of  the  events  that  hap- 
pened between  Monday  morning  and  Thursday  night — so  uncer- 


Attack  and  Counter- Attack  389 

tain,  indeed,  that  we  cannot  determine  whether  Tuesday  or 
Wednesday  was  the  final  day  of  His  public  activity  in  Jerusalem. 
St.  Luke  says  that  He  taught  in  the  temple  day  by  day,  and  that  the 
high-priests,  scribes  and  leading  men  of  the  people  would  fain 
have  destroyed  Him,  but  knew  not  how  to  accomplish  their  de- 
sire. Early  in  the  mornings,  all  the  people  used  to  resort  to  Him 
in  the  temple  to  listen  to  His  words,  and  they  would  hang  upon 
His  lips  as  men  entranced.^  St.  John,  however,  is  the  only  one 
of  the  four  evangelists  who  has  preserved  the  gist  of  our  Lord's 
last  public  utterances  in  the  temple;  and,  from  his  brief  digest 
of  the  teachings  of  those  concluding  days,  we  learn  that  Jesus 
summed  up  and  asserted  His  Messianic  claims  and  His  warnings 
against  the  sin  of  rejecting  them.  Again,  Jesus  reiterated  His 
Divine  commission  and  His  moral  oneness  with  the  Father,  whom 
He  revealed ;  He  claims  that  His  Ministry  is  a  Light  come  into 
the  world;  they,  therefore,  who  reject  His  word  will  be  judged 
by  it  in  the  last  day ;  but  they  who  believe  on  Him  will  not  abide 
in  a  state  of  moral  darkness,  but  will  receive  eternal  life.^ 

3.  The  leading  members  of  the  Sanhedrim  were  genuinely 
alarmed,  for  at  first  it  seemed  as  though  the  people  were  in  sym- 
pathy with  Jesus;  and  under  the  excitement  of  His  Presence 
they  might  use  the  feast  as  an  opportunity  of  insurrection;  and, 
if  such  were  the  case,  the  Romans  would  once  more  make  a  riot 
an  occasion  for  another  indiscriminate  slaughter  of  the  Jews.  It 
may  have  been  on  Tuesday  that  the  enemies  of  Jesus,  having  con- 
sulted together,  agreed  to  waive  all  their  mutual  antagonisms, 
that  they  might  unitedly  attack  Him  and  subvert  His  influence. 
Hence  we  find  a  formidable  alliance  ^  between  the  Herodians  and 
the  Pharisees,  which  had  been  already  foreshadowed  during 
the  later  Galilean  ministry; — an  alliance,  that  is,  between  the 
aristocratic  families  who  favoured  the  Roman  supremacy  and 
the  strict  sect  of  Pharisees  who  were  rigorous  separatists  from  all 
Gentiles,  as  also  from  all  who  were  lax  in  their  adherence  to 
Judaism.  Such  a  truce  between  these  rival  orders  serves  to 
disclose  the  intensity  of  their  hatred  of  Jesus.  Fearing,  however, 
to  arrest  their  common  enemy  because  of  His  influence  upon  the 
assembled  pilgrims,  these  Jews  formed  schemes  to  entrap  Him 
either   into   making   some   treasonable   statement   in    regard   to 

*Luke  xix.  48;  xxi.  37.  *John   xii.   44-50. 

•Mark  xii.  13-17;  Matt.  xxii.  15-22;  Luke  xx.  19-26. 


390    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

Caesar's  suzerainty,  or,  if  He  avoided  this  danger,  to  make  His 
fear  of  treason  appear  before  the  people  as  an  unpatriotic  repudi- 
ation of  all  hope  of  national  restitution.  In  this  collusion  and 
subtle  intrigue,  we  almost  fancy  that  there  can  once  again  be 
detected  the  guiding  craft  of  Caiaphas,  who  thought  that  at  last 
Jesus  might  be  sacrificed  to  the  jealous  vigilance  of  Rome.  What- 
ever hypocrisy  or  diplomacy  may  have  lurked  in  their  flattering 
address,  this  deputation  of  Pharisees  and  Herodians  gave  explicit 
acknowledgement  of  the  fact  that  Jesus  was  known  by  all  to  be 
absolutely  upright — a  dangerous  admission  to  make,  even  insin- 
cerely,— of  One  whose  overthrow  they  designed.  "  Teacher,  we 
know  that  Thou  art  truthful,  caring  not  for  anyone  (for  Thou 
regardest  not  the  person  of  men),  but  teachest  the  way  of  God 
with  truth."  Men  could  utter  such  words  as  these  only  of  one 
whose  character  was  known  to  be  above  reproach;  that  they  ad- 
dressed Him  thus  only  to  cloak  their  malignancy,  in  nowise  de- 
tracts from  the  cogency  of  such  inadvertent  testimony,  although 
it  condemned  themselves  as  the  guileful  opponents  of  righteous- 
ness. "  Is  it  right,"  they  asked,  "  to  pay  tribute  to  Caesar  or  not  ? 
Ought  we  to  pay,  or  ought  we  not  ?  "  With  marvellous  direct- 
ness of  insight  Jesus  at  once  penetrated  their  malevolent  purpose, 
and  saw  the  respective  difficulties  involved  in  either  a  negative 
or  an  affirmative  answer.  "Why  make  trial  of  Me?"  He  said. 
"  Bring  me  a  denarius,  that  I  may  see  it."  Taking  a  coin  that  was 
proffered.  He  said,  "  Whose  likeness  and  inscription  is  this  ? " 
They  answered,  "  Caesar's."  "  Then,"  said  Jesus,  "  render  to 
Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,  and  to  God  the  things  that  are 
God's."  The  retort  given  by  Jesus  gave  no  settlement  of  a  most 
vexatious  and  pressing  political  problem ;  but  although  skilfully 
evasive  of  particulars  in  a  matter  wherein  one  whisper  of  treason 
would  have  ruined  forever  the  prospects  of  His  Church,  it 
enunciated  a  far-reaching  principle  that  every  man  ought  to  dis- 
charge all  known  duties  of  citizenship  and  of  religion.  Jesus 
simply  exercised  the  caution  that  the  most  patriotic  Pharisee 
would  have  shown  in  refusing  to  pronounce  any  judgement  upon 
the  grievance  of  Caesar's  usurping  dominance  in  Palestine.  He 
pointed  out  simply  that  the  image  and  superscription  of  Tiberius 
upon  the  denarius  was  itself  proof  that  Caesar  was  de  facto  the 
ruler  to  whom  tribute  must  be  paid ;  but  He  refrained  from  all 
expression  of  opinion  about  Caesar's  right  to  rule.  The  second 
part  of  Jesus'  reply  was  not  so  irrelevant  as  it  may  have  sounded 


Attack  and  Counter- Attack  391 

to  unprepared  ears;  it  expressed  His  view  that  religion  is  con- 
centric with  all  earthly  obligations  of  man's  relationships,  com- 
prehending all  lower  duties  under  the  supreme  rule  of  fidelity  to 
God.  Thus  once  again,  as  before — Jesus  had  refused  to  arbitrate 
between  two  brothers  in  their  dispute  about  an  inheritance — He 
rejects  all  political  interpretations  of  His  claim  to  be  the  Messiah. 
It  is  often  made  a  complaint  against  Him  today  that  His  teach- 
ing offers  no  aid  in  solving  the  political,  economic  and  social 
problems  which  press  upon  us;  yet  we  see  clearly  that,  had  He 
dealt  with  the  actual  tyrannies  and  wrongs  of  a  particular  age  and 
people  instead  of  simply  laying  down  the  broad  principles  which 
relate  to  the  inward  spirit  of  man's  life.  He  could  not  have  been 
the  Teacher  and  Consoler  of  all  ages.  In  this  attempt  to  entrap 
Him  in  His  speech.  He  calmly  and  skilfully  extricated  Himself 
from  a  dangerous  dilemma,  and  while  He  baffled  the  hatred  of  His 
allied  foes,  He  forced  upon  them  the  thought  that  they  were  not 
fufilling  their  duties  to  God. 

4.  Out  of  slight  hints  and  probabilities  offered  incidentally 
by  the  evangelists,  we  have  to  reconstruct  a  mental  picture  of 
Christ's  Ministry  in  the  temple  during  the  Passion-week.  Not 
only  did  all  the  people  resort  to  Him  in  the  early  mornings,  but 
the  Sanhedrists,  as  representing  the  essential  ideas  and  authority 
of  contemporary  Judaism,  visited  him — "  watching  their  chance 
(they)  despatched  spies,  who  posed  as  upright  men,  to  lay  hold 
of  what  He  said."  The  temple  courts  were  crowded  with  pilgrims 
who  represented  the  best  religious  life  of  the  cities  and  families 
throughout  the  Jewish  world,  and  Jesus  may  have  sat  or  stood  "  in 
the  gate  of  the  Lord's  house  "  at  the  entrance  of  the  inner  court. 
It  was  no  ordinary  scene;  the  audience  was  composed  of  wor- 
shippers, among  whom  were  little  groups  of  Jesus'  enemies ;  and 
the  Speaker  Himself  was  a  striking  and  impressive  personality, 
who  was  looked  upon  by  the  people  as  a  great  prophet;  by  the 
disciples  as  the  true  Messiah,  by  His  foes  as  a  mere  pretender. 
When  men  are  incubating  some  wicked  plot  it  would  seem  as 
though  malignant  influences  are  ever  ready  to  pour  in  from 
some  sphere  outside  human  control.  Macbeth  meets  the  witches 
on  the  heath;  these  weird  sisters  would  have  remained  unper- 
ceived,  had  not  his  own  brain  been  made  ready  to  receive  their  evil 
suggestions  by  his  own  over-vaulting  ambition.  The  enemies  of 
Christ  were  plotting  against  Him  when  the  material  of  an  ironical 


892    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

temptation  was  put  into  their  hands,  as  it  were,  by  a  case  which 
came  before  a  committee  of  the  Sanhedrim  probably  at  that  time. 
A  woman  taken  in  the  sin  of  aduhery  had  been  brought  before  the 
council  for  judgement;  and  one  of  the  members  satirically  ad- 
vised that,  since  the  Nazarene  Teacher  had  dared  to  say  that  even 
harlots  should  go  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  before  the  Scribes 
and  Pharisees,  He  should  be  asked  to  pronounce  judgement  upon 
the  woman.  While  the  exact  time  of  this  occurrence  cannot  be 
fixed,  there  is  little  doubt  that  it  was  among  the  closing  scenes 
of  Christ's  Ministry.  Godet,  who  regarded  the  story  ^  as  due  to 
an  editorial  introduction  of  one  of  the  extra-scriptural  facts  pre- 
served by  the  oral  tradition  of  primitive  times,  remarks  that  "  its 
internal  characteristics  place  it  chronologically  at  the  same  epoch 
as  other  similar  facts  related  by  the  Synopists — viz.  immediately 
after  the  Triumphal  Entry.  Before  that  day,  we  can  hardly 
understand  so  explicit  a  recognition  of  the  authority  of  Jesus  on 
the  part  of  the  Sanhedrim."  *  Those  who  feel  so  inclined  may  re- 
ject this  narrative  as  lacking  in  documentary  support,  and  may 
have  the  critic's  justification  of  balanced  caution ;  but,  for  our- 
selves, judging  this  interpolation  found  in  St.  John  by  our  test  of 
impressionism,  we  perceive  in  it  a  correspondence  with  the  occa- 
sion— a  possible  satire  intended  by  referring  such  a  case  to  Jesus — 
and  a  certain  self-evidencing  quality  in  the  action  and  words  of 
the  Master  and  their  effect  upon  others. 

5.  We  pass  from  the  questions  of  authenticity  and  inherent 
probability  to  the  scene  described  but  misplaced  in  St.  John's 
gospel.  While  Jesus  stood  in  the  midst  of  the  throng  teaching 
them,  a  sudden  thrill  of  excitement  touched  the  people  as  a  few 
grave  counsellors  led  a  shrinking,  shame-stricken  woman  up  to 
Him  and  said,  "  Teacher,  this  woman  has  been  caught  in  the  very 
act  of  committing  adultery.  Now  in  the  Law,  Moses  commanded 
us  to  stone  such  women.  What  sayest  Thou,  then  ?  "  They  re- 
ferred this  case  to  Jesus  with  mock  recognition  of  His  authority, 
and  yet  even  in  doing  so  they  once  again  gave  acknowledgement 
of  the  profound  impression  He  had  made  upon  them.  The  posi- 
tion in  which  Jesus  was  placed  before  the  people  was  one  of  diffi- 
culty; He  had  been  known  to  make  the  public  claim  to  be  the 
"  Friend  of  sinners  " :  but  for  Him  to  waive  the  Mosaic  law  as 
inapplicable  would  be  seeming  to  do  despite  to  Moses;*  while, 

'John  vii.  53-viii.  il.  'Godet,  St.  John's  Gospel,  p.  312. 

•Deut.  xxii.  23f. 


Attack  and  Counter- Attack  393 

on  the  other  hand,  to  enforce  the  old  Hebrew  law,  would  place 
Him  in  antagonism  to  the  Roman  authority.  Jesus  "  bent  down 
and  began  to  write  with  His  finger  on  the  ground."  "  The  scrap- 
ing or  drawing  on  the  ground  with  a  stick  or  the  finger  has  been 
in  many  countries  a  common  expression  of  deliberate  silence  or 
embarrassment."  ^  No  one  can  penetrate  into  the  feelings  of 
Jesus  at  that  moment;  He  may,  indeed,  have  stooped  to  hide  His 
embarrassment,  feeling  an  utter  detestation  of  the  indelicacy  of 
those  coarse-grained  men.  Although  His  own  snow-white  soul 
had  never  been  shadowed  by  a  passing  thought  of  lust,  He  knew 
what  was  in  man's  heart,  and  therefore  felt  an  infinite  pity  for 
this  poor  victim  of  unclean  desire.  Perhaps  He  paused  awhile  to 
steady  His  own  Soul  after  the  first  shock  of  sympathy,  lest  ITis 
voice  should  break  in  sobs.  The  scribes,  however,  afraid  lest  His 
silence  signified  that  He  would  refuse  to  answer,  went  on  asking 
for  His  judgement.  At  length  Jesus  raised  Himself  up  and 
answered  in  calm,  stern  tones,  as  He  looked  around  upon  the 
heartless  accusers :  "  Let  him  who  is  without  sin  among  you  be 
the  first  to  cast  a  stone  at  her."  The  hubbub  around  Him  ceased  ; 
His  words  were  as  a  flash  of  lightning  ripping  up  the  dark 
secrets  of  their  inmost  thoughts,  and  as  He  stooped  once  more 
to  scribble  on  the  ground,  those  self-convicted  men  slunk  away 
"  beginning  with  the  eldest,  and  He  was  left  alone  with  the 
woman."  It  ought  not  to  be  inferred  that  those  scribes  were  men 
of  licentious  habits;  but,  in  the  presence  of  absolute  innocence, 
their  poor  respectability  seemed  little  better  than  the  woman's 
guilt.  Jesus  voiced  the  judgement  of  an  immaculate  conscience, 
and  His  words  seemed  to  strip  them  naked,  leaving  their  secret 
thoughts  and  desires  exposed  in  the  fire  of  Divine  holiness.  One 
of  the  most  impressive  attributes  of  Jesus  was  His  purity  ^',  be- 
cause of  this  His  words  pierce  men  through  the  heart  with  a 
sense  of  guilt,  and  they  voluntarily  echo  Simon's  cry,  "  Depart 
from  me,  for  I  am  a  sinful  man,  O  Lord!  "  When  He  lifted  up 
His  head  again  Jesus  saw  the  wretched  woman  standing  there, 
unable  to  withdraw  till  He  had  set  her  free,  and  said,  "  Woman, 
where  are  they?  Did  no  man  condemn  thee?"  "  No  one.  Sir." 
"  Neither  do  I  condemn  thee.  Go  thy  way :  henceforth  sin  no 
more."  This  clemency  must  not  be  confused  with  laxity;  Jesus 
refused  to  condemn  because  He  saw  that  shame  had  burnt  into 

'  Dr.  Dods  in  Expos.  N.  T.    John  viii.  i-il. 

'  St.  John  iii.  3,  ayveia,  a  virgin  purity,  chastity  of  soul 


394    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

the  adultress's  soul,  and  because,  it  may  well  be,  He  perceived 
that  words  of  censure  would  harden  and  freeze  up  the  little  vein 
of  penitence  that  had  begun  to  trickle  in  her  heart.  There  is  an 
opening  here  for  the  criticism  that  Jesus  gives  no  aid  to  the  social 
reformer  in  battling  against  the  sexual  impurities  which  scourge 
our  cities :  hence,  although  we  share  in  some  measure  in  the  pity 
He  expressed  for  the  victims  of  lust,  we  glean  from  His  treat- 
ment of  this  case  no  guidance  for  dealing  with  this  gigantic 
wrong.  But  then,  what  rules  would  avail  to  withstand  the  mo- 
mentum of  this  great  elemental  passion  in  the  lives  of  men?  At 
least,  Jesus  shows  respectable  moralists  that  it  is  futile  to  con- 
demn the  woman  while  her  paramour  escapes ;  that  the  source  of 
this  social  impurity  lies  in  the  unclean  thoughts  in  the  hearts 
of  men. 

6.  Surprised,  chagrined,  and  resentful  at  Christ's  facile  eva- 
sion of  the  net  they  had  spread  for  Him,  the  Herodians  fell 
back,  so  that  the  representatives  of  an  "  older  orthodoxy  "  might 
seek  to  confound  the  Nazarene.  St.  Luke  affirms  that  "  the  Sad- 
ducees  say  that  there  is  no  resurrection,  neither  angel,  nor 
Spirit " :  ^  Josephus  says  of  the  same  sect,  "  They  take  away  also 
the  belief  of  the  immortal  duration  of  the  soul,  and  the  punish- 
ments and  rewards  in  Hades."  ^  Some  of  the  members  of  this 
Sadducean  sect  came  to  Jesus,  haughtily  scornful  of  the  rab- 
binical pretensions  of  this  Galilean  peasant,  and  resolved  that  they 
would  humiliate  Him,  even  in  the  eyes  of  those  who  were  deluded 
by  Him.  Although  Jesus  had  made  it  no  special  object  to  teach 
the  immortality  of  the  soul  and  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  He 
had  throughout  His  Ministry  assumed  the  truth  of  these  doctrines, 
and  had  necessarily  alluded  to  them  as  certainties  of  the  Spiritual 
life.  He  was  no  systematic  theologian  or  philosopher ;  His  great- 
est contribution  both  to  ethics  and  to  Revelation  was  His  own 
personality  and  life;  perhaps,  apart  from  the  authority  imparted 
by  His  character,  the  teaching  of  Jesus  would  not  excel,  so  greatly 
as  we  sometimes  imagine,  the  noble,  spiritual  philosophy  of  Plato, 
although  the  latter  is  more  mixed  up  with  the  corrupted  opinions 
belonging  to  contemporary  thought.  Treatises  may  be  written  on 
the  Sayings  of  Jesus;  yet  profound  and  beautiful  as  these  are, 
and  rightly  prized  as  the  sacred  deposit  of  the  Church,  still  they 
are  fragmentary  and  based  at  times  on  uncertified  reminiscences ; 

*  Acts  xxiii.  8.  '  Jewish  War,  ii.,  8,  14. 


Attack  and  Counter- Attack  395 

and,  in  order  to  extract  their  full  flavour  and  significance,  we 
must  connect  them  in  reflection  with  our  impression  of  Jesus 
Himself.  "  It  is  the  Lord  Jesus  and  not  His  sayings,  that  was 
the  subject  of  the  earliest  preachers  of  Christianity.  Doubtless 
part  of  the  personal  impression  included  a  vivid  sense  of  our 
Lord's  guiding  principles  of  life,  His  daily  and  hourly  inter- 
course with  His  Father  in  Heaven,  and  the  sureness  and  authority 
which  this  Heavenly  intercourse  gave  Him  in  discerning  right 
and  wrong."  ^  Such  is  our  impression  of  our  Lord,  that  we  find 
it  impossible  to  separate  His  words  altogether  from  His  acts; 
both  together  serve  to  reflect  His  mind  and  to  disclose  His 
unique  Person. 

7,  The  Sadducees  ^  laid  before  Jesus  a  hypothetic  instance  of 
Levirate  practice — a  woman  marries  in  succession  seven  brothers, 
who  all  die  without  issue — and  based  upon  this  almost  impossible 
and  ridiculous  imagination  the  question,  "  Whose  wife  shall  she 
be  in  the  resurrection  Hfe?"  Their  Pharisaic  allies  must  have 
felt  somewhat  uncomfortable  at  this  treatment  of  their  cherished 
belief,  as  though  it  were  an  absurd  jest;  yet  they  raised  no 
protest,  since  it  was  designed  to  nonplus  Jesus,  whom  they  hated. 
Many  teachers  might  have  refused  to  enter  upon  an  idle  con- 
troversy with  no  real  relevance  to  the  facts  of  life;  but  Jesus 
took  up  the  question  and  lifted  the  whole  discussion  to  the  high 
level  of  His  own  habitual  thought.  "  Surely  you  err,"  He  said, 
"  because  you  do  not  understand  the  Scriptures  or  the  power  of 
God:  when  the  dead  rise,  they  neither  marry  nor  are  given  in 
marriage,  but  are  as  the  angels  in  heaven.  And  concerning  the 
raising  of  the  dead,  have  you  not  read  in  the  Book  of  Moses,  in 
the  section  of  the  Bush,  how  God  said  to  him,  '  I  am  the  God 
of  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob?  He  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead, 
but  of  the  living.' "  This  argument  does  not  derive  its  cogency 
from  the  use  of  the  present  tense,^  for  its  intrinsic  value  lay  in 
the  conception  of  God's  relation  with  men  cherished  and  taught  by 
Jesus.  Neither  in  the  Hebrew  text  nor  in  the  Septuagint  version, 
nor  in  our  Lord's  quotation,  was  a  verb  employed,  although  it  is 
demanded  to  complete  the  English  idiom.  Professor  H.  B.  Swete 
remarks  that  "  In  this  place  God  reveals  Himself  as  standing  in  a 

*  The  Gospel  History  and  its  Transmission,  p.  144. 

'  Matt.  xxii.  23-33. 

3  oh  yap  elnev,  '"B-firiv,  a^A'  eJyut. 


896    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

real  relation  to  men  who  were  long  dead.  But  the  living  God  can- 
not be  in  relation  with  any  who  have  ceased  to  exist;  therefore, 
the  patriarchs  were  still  living  in  His  sight  at  the  time  of  the  Exo- 
dus." The  mind  of  Jesus  passed  far  beyond  the  earth-born 
doubts  of  the  Sadducees  and  the  pedantry  of  the  scribes,  and  this 
thought  He  has  given  the  world  becomes  ever  more  replete  with 
force  and  meaning  as  we  learn  to  know  the  reality  of  our  Divine 
relationship.  Such  an  argument  as  this  flashes  upon  us  a  light  of 
revelation  as  transcendent  and  self-evident  as  that  flung  first  from 
Horeb's  Bush.  It  unveils  the  personal  intimacy  of  Jesus  with  the 
Father  in  Heaven.  Immortality  is  assured  by  our  knowledge  of 
the  spiritual  and  personal  relations  existing  between  God  and  the 
Soul.  When  Christ's  exegesis  brings  such  an  intuition  as  this, 
it  compels  us  to  think  that  we  too  are  ignorant  of  the  Scriptures. 
Our  Lord  authoritatively  declares  that  when  the  dead  arise  they 
do  not  resume  the  forms  and  habits  of  earthly  life,  but  enter 
upon  an  angelic  state  in  Heaven.  He  does  not  argue  that  there 
will  be  a  resurrection ;  He  simply  affirms  the  continuity  of  man's 
personal  life  in  God:  physical  death  is  but  an  incident  in  the 
soul's  experience  as  it  passes  to  fuller  intimacy  with  God.  At 
His  words,  the  shadowy  existence  of  Sheol  is  transformed  into 
the  warm,  full  life  of  abiding  personal  relationship  with  God. 

8.  Although  the  Pharisees  must  have  approved  this  remark- 
able vindication  of  their  belief  in  life  hereafter,  yet  they  grudged 
that  Jesus  should  have  the  victory.  They  wished  to  undermine 
His  authority,  and  would  not  allow  their  momentary  agreement 
with  Him  to  thwart  the  plan  of  attack  that  had  been  arranged 
by  their  enemies.  Still,  we  cannot  but  imagine  that  far  less 
malignancy  was  betrayed  by  the  scribe  who  put  the  next  question 
to  Jesus,  "  Which  is  the  first  commandment  ?  "  ^  Although  they 
failed  to  appreciate  the  fact,  yet  the  double  quotation  from  the 
Law  made  by  Jesus  virtually  expressed  in  felicitous  and  accurate 
speech  the  whole  character  of  His  Ministry  among  them.  "  The 
first  is.  Hear,  O  Israel !  The  Lord  is  our  God,  the  Lord  is  one ; 
and  thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  with  all 
thy  soul,  with  all  thy  mind,  with  all  thy  strength.  The  second  is 
this,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself.  There  is  no  other 
commandment  greater  than  these."  "  The  first  of  these  two 
laws  was  written  on  phylacteries,  and  the  Jews  recited  it  morn- 

*  Matt.  xxii.  34-40 ;  Mark  xii.  28-33. 


Attack  and  Counter-Attack  397 

ing  and  evening  (Deut.  vi.  4;  xi.  13)  ;  hence,  it  was  the  natural 
answer."  The  second  is  quoted  from  Lev.  xix.  18.  Jesus  quoted 
the  Levitical  rule  of  love  to  one's  neighbour  in  conjunction  with 
the  law  that  man  should  love  God  absolutely,  in  order  to  show 
that  true  humanity  is  practical  religion ;  that  the  love  of  God  can 
never  be  accompanied  by  any  fanatical  neglect  of  men's  social 
obligations.  In  the  balanced  ethic  of  Christ's  teaching  there  is  no 
divorce  between  religion  and  daily  life;  this  great  Rabbi  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  was  free  of  all  taint  of  "  other-worldliness." 
It  is  true  He  laid  supreme  emphasis  upon  the  fulfilment  of  all 
duties  springing  from  man's  relations  to  God,  but  He  made  it 
clear  forever  that  the  truest  Divinity  is  humanitarian.  The  love 
He  inculcates  cannot  ignore  a  man's  neighbours;  the  Divine 
Fatherhood  He  revealed  implied  an  ethical  brotherhood ;  religion 
must  involve  some  form  of  socialism.  Even  His  inquisitor  was 
swept  out  of  his  pedantry  into  a  warm,  ingenuous  outburst  oi 
admiration ;  hearing  which,  Jesus  pronounced  him  to  be  not  far 
from  the  Kingdom. 

9.  Even  the  enemies  of  Jesus  must  have  manifested  surprise  as 
well  as  vexation  at  the  penetrating  sagacity  of  this  Teacher  who 
had  never  studied  letters.  He  was  irresistible  in  dialectic;  His 
common  speech  betrayed  a  habit  of  profound  reflection  and  a 
gift  of  insight  that  would  not  be  satisfied  with  less  than  the  inner 
heart  of  any  subject  He  discussed.  It  was  undeniable  even  by 
His  interrogators,  that  Jesus  surpassed  them  in  the  knowledge 
of  subjects  which  they  claimed  as  their  own;  hence,  they  retired 
from  the  struggle  in  conscious  defeat.  We  also  are  constrained 
to  confess  that  a  mind  which  could  so  swiftly  and  naturally  elude 
all  traps,  baffle  all  sophistry,  and  convince  even  some  of  His  foes 
that  He  spoke  God's  truth  without  fear,  must  have  possessed  a 
quaUty  of  superb  intellectuality.  We  make  such  comments  as 
these,  not  in  the  way  of  passing  anything  like  encomium  upon 
One  who  transcends  all  need  of  such  eulogy,  but  in  order 
that  we  may  appreciate  all  the  various  aspects  of  His  total 
Humanity.  And,  to  complete  our  review  of  this  part  of  our 
Lord's  Ministry,  we  must  observe  His  counter-attack,  which  He 
made  in  no  mood  of  petty  spite  or  desire  for  retaliation,  but 
simply  that  they  might  be  incited  to  revise  and  enlarge  their 
defective  and  limited  conception  of  Messiahship.  Present-day 
critical  discussions  concerning  the  authorship  of  Psalm  ex.  are 


398    The  Royal  Progress  and  Messianic  Struggle 

quite  irrelevant  to  the  real  point  of  our  Lord's  question.  We 
have  studied  His  life  in  vain  if  we  have  not  yet  learned  that  He 
had  a  truly  human  consciousness,  and  that  He  was  limited  by 
contemporary  conditions  of  scholarship.  When  the  matter  to  be 
dealt  with  was  one  of  spiritual  life  and  of  God's  relationship  to 
man,  Jesus,  as  we  have  seen  in  previous  discussions,  spoke  with 
a  simplicity,  directness  and  certitude  that  have  never  been  sur- 
passed. On  such  themes  He  remains  the  unrivalled  Master.  But, 
in  ordinary  matters  of  erudition,  His  knowledge  appears  to  have 
been  derived  from  ordinary  sources;  for  example,  in  regard  to 
this  particular  psalm  Jesus  accepted  the  tradition  of  authorship 
and  date  that  prevailed  among  His  contemporaries.  Let  no  one 
here  suppose  that  we  impugn  His  Divinity;  we  have  already 
found  convincing  evidences  of  this  in  His  perfect  love,  and  not  in 
any  escape  from  the  laws  which  govern  the  operations  of  the 
human  mind. 

lo.  One  of  the  principal  reasons  of  the  Pharisaic  criticism 
of  the  authority  of  Jesus  was  the  over-emphasis  given  to  the 
Davidic  descent  of  the  Messiah,  and  to  the  political  work  of 
restoring  David's  Kingdom.  Now,  many  will  confess  that 
questions  of  genealogy,  even  those  of  the  Gospels,  have  but 
little  attraction ;  to  such  it  is  but  an  interesting  trifle  whether 
Jesus  was  truly  the  Son  of  David  according  to  the  flesh; 
their  glory  is  that  He  is  the  Son  of  Man  and  the  Son  of  God. 
To  the  ancient  scribes,  however,  the  Davidic  Sonship  was  one 
of  the  necessary  notes  of  Messiahship.  This  title,  even  to  Jesus 
Himself,  seemed  inadequate  to  describe  Jehovah's  SuflFering 
Servant.  He  would  fain  have  had  them  transfer  the  emphasis 
from  the  mere  individuality  begotten  of  the  flesh,  to  the  inward 
spiritual  character.  Hence  He  said  to  the  men  around,  "  David 
himself  said,  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  The  Lord  said  to  my  Lord, 
Sit  thou  on  my  right  hand  until  I  put  thine  enemies  under  thy 
footstool.  David  therefore  himself  calleth  him  '  Lord  ' ;  whence 
then  is  he  his  son?"  H,  during  the  time  of  His  youth,  Jesus 
ever  felt  the  fascination  of  the  trend  of  prophecy  concerning  the 
earthly  and  regal  splendour  of  the  Messiah,  He  had  since  learned 
to  value  also  the  conception  of  the  vicarious  Sufferer, — of  the 
Prince  who  was  to  be  cut  off,  of  the  Smitten  Shepherd.  Popular 
imagination,  however,  fastened  naturally  upon  the  national  hope 
of  a  hero-king  like  David.    Even  if  the  haughty  scribes  were  un- 


Attack  and  Counter-Attack  399 

willing  to  revise  their  interpretations  of  Scripture,  Jesus  would 
gladly  have  emancipated  the  populace  from  submission  to  doc- 
trines which  lacked  spiritual  insight.  He  aimed  at  suggesting 
to  their  minds  a  nobler,  truer,  and  more  practicable  notion  of 
God's  Anointed.  The  scribes  dared  not  even  attempt  to  answer 
Jesus;  and,  as  in  speech  so  now  in  silence,  they  stand  self- 
exposed  as  incompetent  guides.  Thus  did  the  planned  attacks  of 
His  allied  foes  come  to  naught ;  their  subtle  schemes  of  entangling 
Jesus  in  debate,  of  betraying  Him  into  some  word  that  might  be 
used  against  Him  in  a  charge  of  treason,  or  of  discrediting  Him 
before  His  followers,  resulted  only  in  their  own  confusion.  He 
reduced  His  assailants  to  impotent  silence,  sweeping  away  their 
cobwebs  of  sophistry,  and  lifting  all  minds  that  were  willing  on 
to  a  spiritual  plane  of  thought  where  selfishness  and  pedantry  are 
asphyxiated. 

II.  The  Master  did  not  permit  His  malignant  enemies  to  slip 
away  without  a  final  rebuke;  for  the  sake  of  the  unlearned,  He 
administered  public  castigation.  They  were  dangerous  to  others, 
since  they  sat  "  in  Moses'  seat " ;  although  they  made  an  ostenta- 
tious show  of  zeal  for  religion,  they  took  away  the  "  key  of 
knowledge,"  and  obstructed  the  entrance  into  the  Reign  of  God. 
Jesus  stripped  them  of  their  pretences,  and  pilloried  them  for 
all  time  as  types  of  insincerity — as  mere  actors  of  religion;  as 
blind  pedants,  who  placed  unnecessary  burdens  upon  the  peo- 
ple. There  was  no  taint  of  weakness  in  the  Humanity  of  Jesus ; 
His  love  was  a  passion  for  righteousness.  While  He  was,  as  we 
have  shown  in  this  chapter  once  again,  preeminently  pitiful  to- 
wards error  and  sin,  He  was  intolerant  of  all  hypocrisy,  hurling 
against  it  the  lightning-like  invectives  of  His  terrible  indignation. 
He  pitied  most  tenderly  the  penitent  harlot,  but  He  did  not  spare 
her  hard-hearted  accusers.  We  cannot  comprehend  such  com- 
plexity of  character  as  this;  in  our  portrait  of  Him  we  must 
link  together  His  stern  rebukes  of  Pharisaism  and  His  lamenta- 
tion and  tears  over  the  doomed  city;  the  seven  woes  uttered  in 
the  temple  must  be  placed  side  by  side  with  the  Beatitudes  He 
uttered  on  the  Mount.  Although  St.  Luke  has  given  a  different 
setting  to  the  "  woes,"  we  cannot  but  realize  that  they  belong  most 
probably  to  the  Passion-week.  There  is  no  other  time  when  this 
philippic  against  the  clerical  party  of  Judaism  could  have  been 
so  fitly  delivered.   It  is  the  climax  of  a  struggle  which  we  have 


400    The  Royal  Progi-ess  and  Messianic  Struggle 

traced  from  the  first  breach  of  Jesus  with  the  authorized  repre- 
sentatives of  Israel  over  the  heahng  of  the  man  \.  ith  the  withered 
hand.  Whether  the  unity  and  eloquence  of  this  final  public  ad- 
dress attributed  to  Jesus  be  regarded  as  proof  of  its  integrity 
and  authenticity,  or  whether  these  shall  be  looked  upon  as  marks 
of  the  editor's  own  literary  skill,  may  be  left  to  the  personal 
judgement  of  each  reader;  it  is  enough  for  our  use  that  it  gives 
a  true  impression  of  the  culminating  stage  of  a  long-continued 
struggle  between  Jesus  and  the  acknowledged  theologians  of  that 
age.  The  people  had  cherished  a  hope  that  Jesus  would  sound  the 
tocsin  of  revolt,  whereas  He  rang  out  the  knell  of  Jerusalem's 
doom.  He  saw,  as  in  a  dreadful  vision,  the  red  stream  of  blood 
running  through  the  streets — the  blood  of  the  slain  prophets  from 
Abel  to  Zechariah.  He  saw  also,  in  the  leaders  of  Judaism,  the 
same  murderous  spirit  as  that  which  had  led  their  fathers  to 
persecute  the  prophets.  The  scribes  and  Pharisees  had  filled 
the  cup  of  Israel's  iniquity;  therefore  Jehovah's  wrath  would 
soon  destroy  the  city.  Once  again  Israel  had  rejected  the  Divine 
visitation,  in  consequence  of  which  Jesus  predicts  the  resistless 
approach  of  the  Days  of  Retribution.  Because  Jerusalem  had 
made  the  last  great  refusal  of  Christ's  offer  of  a  Spiritual  King- 
dom, Jesus  feels  His  heart  pierced  by  great  sorrow,  and  pours 
out  a  noble  threnody  over  the  city,  so  gloriously  described  in 
ancient  prophecy  and  psalm.  "  O  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  which 
killeth  the  prophets  and  stoneth  them  that  are  sent  unto  her! 
How  often  would  I  have  gathered  thy  children  together,  even  as  a 
hen  gathereth  her  chickens  under  her  wings,  and  ye  would  not! 
Behold,  your  house  is  left  unto  you  desolate.  For  I  say  unto 
you.  Ye  shall  not  see  Me  henceforth,  till  ye  shall  say,  Blessed  is 
He  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord." 


BOOK  VIII 
THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  THE  PASSION 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  GREEKS  DESIRE  TO  SEE  JESUS 

I.  Certain  clearly  defined  groups  of  events,  such  as  the 
attacks  upon  Christ's  authority,  the  deliverance  of  the  Judgement 
parables,  and  incidents  such  as  the  eulogy  upon  the  widow  and 
the  visit  of  the  Greeks,  belong  unmistakably  to  the  terminating 
period  of  His  public  ministry.  Of  the  exact  sequence  of  these 
events  and  the  days  on  which  they  happened  we  have  no  assur- 
ance ;  and  yet  such  uncertainty  as  exists  cannot  materially  affect 
the  incidents  of  which  we  shall  treat  in  this  chapter.  The  evan- 
gelists themselves  have  shown  great  freedom  in  the  placing  of 
some  of  the  incidents  of  the  Gospel.  Comparing  their  several 
accounts,  we  perceive  that  while  they  adhered  in  a  general  way 
to  the  main  tradition  of  the  ministry,  they  did  not  scruple  to 
transpose  their  materials  and  to  regroup  whole  collections  of 
the  sayings  of  Jesus  under  the  directive  influence  of  their  several 
aims.  This  characteristic  of  the  Gospels  has  made  it  very  diffi- 
cult in  carrying  out  any  attempt  to  trace  the  natural  development 
of  the  several  parts  of  Christ's  Ministry.  And  yet  such  an 
attempt,  however  much  accompanied  by  hesitating  uncertainty 
at  various  points,  is  easily  justifiable,  since  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  His  teachings  were  modified  by  the  occasions  which  elicited 
them,  and  that  the  sequence  of  events,  in  spite  of  all  uncertainties, 
does  manifest  the  presence  of  some  definite  plan  of  activity 
working  in  the  mind  of  Jesus  from  the  beginning.  Although  it 
may  be  a  misnomer  to  speak  of  the  development  of  Christ's  pur- 
pose, since  His  dominant  purpose  remained  unchanged  through- 
out, yet  it  is  necessary  that  full  recognition  be  given  to  the  grad- 
uated manifestation  of  that  purpose.  On  the  other  hand  we  make 
no  a  priori  denial  of  the  possibility  that  Jesus  Himself  was  only 
slowly  introduced  to  all  the  obligations  and  incidental  applica- 
tions of  that  generic  purpose  which  He  summed  up  in  the  phrase 
that  He  came  to  do  the  Will  of  the  Father.  The  surprises  and 
disappointments  that  He  passed  through  can  be  sympathetically 
understood  by  any  man  who  has  striven,  through  long  years,  to 

403 


404  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

evince  in  daily  conduct  the  fidelity  he  promised  in  early  vows. 
If  we  speak  of  development,  therefore,  in  the  Ministry  of  Jesus, 
we  must  keep  clearly  in  mind  that  it  was  the  fulfilling  manifesta- 
tion of  His  purpose,  and  not  a  change  in  that  purpose  itself.  No 
one  can  miss  the  deepening  note  of  intensity  and  of  self-assertion 
as  Jesus  drew  near  to  the  Cross.  Further,  no  one  would  for  one 
moment  think  of  transposing  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and 
the  Apocalypse  of  Jesus,  or  of  reversing  the  position  of  the 
parables  of  the  Kingdom  and  the  Judgement  parables.  What- 
ever diffidence  we  have  felt  in  placing  the  Johannine  accounts  of 
Christ's  conversations  with  Nicodemus  and  the  woman  of 
Samaria,  we  cannot  obscure  the  fact  that  for  the  most  part  the 
Gospels  themselves  reflect  with  some  clearness  the  distinct  periods 
of  the  Ministry  of  Jesus — the  beginning,  middle  and  end.  And 
yet  that  ministry  was  not  a  long  one.  Some  have  calculated  that 
it  lasted  about  eighteen  months ;  and  for  ourselves  we  judge  that 
it  was  framed  within  three  Jewish  Passovers.  Hence,  although 
we  have  tentatively  placed  the  Raising  of  Lazarus  back  in  the 
middle  period  of  the  ministry,  we  can  still  accept  John's  testimony 
that  it  exercised  a  determining  influence  over  the  development 
of  the  tragedy  of  the  last  days. 

2.  From  this  general  notion  of  a  traceable  development  in  our 
Lord's  public  life,  we  pass  to  one  of  the  small  but  not  insignificant 
incidents  of  the  Last  Week,  the  Master's  observation  of  the 
widow's  oflfering  and  His  ensuing  eulogy.  The  place  given  to 
it  in  St.  Mark's  gospel  ^ — immediately  after  our  Lord's  scathing 
denunciation  of  the  hard,  greedy  hypocrisy  of  those  scribes 
who  robbed  widows — explains  itself.  We  imagine  that  it  oc- 
curred after  the  disputation  with  the  Herodians  and  Pharisees 
had  ended,  when,  pervaded  perhaps  by  a  feeling  of  nausea,  Jesus 
sat  down  at  "  the  treasury  " — i.e.  in  the  "  court  of  the  women," 
where  there  were  thirteen  trumpet-shaped  boxes  placed  for  the 
oflFerings  of  the  worshippers.  A  word  in  St.  Luke's  narrative, 
that  He  "  looked  up,"  (ava/SXiipa?)  suggests  to  us  that  Jesus 
may  have  sat  awhile  with  closed  eyes,  as  one  absorbed  in  medita- 
tion, when  He  was  prompted  to  look  up  and  observe  the  various 
oflFerings  made  by  the  worshippers.  This  was  no  act  of  rude 
inquisitiveness,  but  of  the  reverence  He  cherished  for  all  that 
belonged  to  His  Father's  House.     There  are  two  errors  which 

*  Mark  xii.  41-44. 


The  Greeks  Desire  to  See  Jesus  405 

betray  some  who  criticize  the  Gospels :  they  ignore  the  difference 
between  the  East  and  the  West;  for  it  ought  constantly  to  be 
borne  in  mind  that,  compared  with  the  etiquette  of  the  West,  the 
manners  of  the  eastern  races  are  characterized  by  greater  suavity 
and  completer  frankness;  and  the  subtlest  diplomacy  is  often 
accompanied  by  surprising  boldness  of  speech.  The  second  error 
is  the  singular  assumption  that  the  conduct  of  Jesus  can  be  judged 
as  though  He  were  an  ordinary  eastern  gentleman.  At  every 
step  we  are  reminded  of  this  uniqueness.  What  the  mere  man  of 
letters  misinterprets  as  the  evidences  of  the  growing  fanaticism  of 
a  poetic  dreamer,  was  the  boldness  of  a  mind  dominated  by  the 
consciousness  of  a  mission.  Those  who  admit  that  Jesus  was  a 
prophet  must  allow  Him  also  the  exercise  of  a  prophet's  preroga- 
tives. Those  who  acknowledge  His  Messiahship  admit  that  He 
sustained  relationships  and  discharged  obligations  which  could  be- 
long to  no  other.  The  assumption  that  Jesus  must  be  reduced 
to  the  standards  which  apply  to  ordinary  human  lives  stultifies 
and  distorts  the  conception  of  His  life.  Jesus  was  not  a  mere 
conventional  Passover  pilgrim;  He  was  One  acting  under  the 
compelling  sense  of  Messianic  responsibility.  In  His  attempt 
to  cleanse  the  temple  He  had  announced  in  action  a  certain  right 
to  direct  the  affairs  of  the  temple ;  and  now,  in  setting  Himself 
so  deliberately  to  observe  what  the  worshippers  cast  into  the 
treasury.  He  was  acting  in  His  character  as  Messiah.  No  ordi- 
nary citizen  could,  without  violating  all  the  instincts  and  con- 
ventions of  propriety  and  good  feeling,  scrutinize  the  gifts  and 
criticize  the  motives  of  those  who  cast  their  offerings  into  the 
public  treasury.  Certainly  it  cannot  be  contended  that  Jesus 
behaved  as  an  ordinary  eastern  gentleman ;  in  word  and  action 
He  assumed  a  tremendous  authority  over  men.  He  was  silent 
about  the  munificent  contributions  made  by  the  rich ;  but  when 
He  observed  the  approach  of  a  poor  woman,  whom  He  appears 
to  have  known,  and  saw  her  cast  in  two  mites- — even  all  she  had — 
Jesus  was  constrained  to  express  His  approval.  Bengel  makes 
the  inaccurate  comment  that  the  woman  might  have  kept  half 
for  her  own  use ;  she  might  have  retained  both,  but  two  lepta 
really  formed  the  smallest  permissible  offering.  Jesus  was  deeply 
moved  by  the  widow's  piety.  On  her  wan  face  He  read  the  vow 
of  perfect  self-abnegation,  and,  calling  His  disciples'  attention, 
He  said :  "  Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  that  this  poor  widow  hath  cast 
in  more  than  all  they  are  casting  into  the  treasury ;  for  they  cast 


406  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

in  of  their  superfluity,  but  she  of  her  need  cast  in  all  that  she 
had,  even  all  her  living."  ^  She  had  learnt  the  Spirit  of  self- 
sacrifice,  and  all  unconsciously  to  herself,  she  was  sharing  the 
passion  of  her  Lord.  This  incident,  trifling  in  itself  and  without 
apparent  influence  upon  the  current  of  our  Lord's  life,  is  of 
value  to  us — first,  because  it  is  too  casual  and  unimportant  to 
be  attributed  to  fictitious  invention  (it  bears  its  own  witness 
that  it  is  a  genuine  reminiscence)  ;  and,  secondly,  it  discloses  our 
Lord's  habit  of  thought  and  His  natural  skill  in  disentangling 
the  real  inner  acts  of  the  will  with  their  motives  from  all  the 
accidents  of  circumstance.  He  was  undaunted  by  the  appear- 
ance of  wealth  and  power,  and  preserved  His  singleness  and 
purity  of  judgement  so  that  He  was  ever  able  to  penetrate  into 
the  arcana  of  thoughts  and  purposes  whence  human  conduct 
springs. 

3.  It  is  possible  that,  while  Jesus  was  resting  at  the  treasury, 
there  occurred  the  memorable  interview  with  the  Greeks  which 
is  recorded  and  preserved  only  in  the  Fourth  Gospel.  Some  have 
judged  this  incident  to  be  a  kind  of  symbolic  legend,  which 
sprang  from  a  natural  desire  to  set  Christ  forth  in  His  relations 
to  the  Gentile  world.  That  there  may  be  legendary  elements  in 
the  Gospels  and  that  this  may  be  one,  we  shall  not  contend 
is  a  thing  incredible ;  but  when  we  seek  to  gain  for  ourselves 
an  unbiassed  impression  of  the  narrative,  we  perceive  in  its 
central  simile  an  affinity  with  the  teaching  of  Jesus  preserved 
in  the  Synoptics ;  and  so  strikingly  in  harmony  with  our  general 
conception  of  the  Personality  of  Jesus  are  the  words  here  attrib- 
uted to  Him,  we  are  led  to  believe  that  we  trace  the  autograph 
of  His  mind  upon  the  logion  concerning  the  grain  of  wheat. 
This  Johannine  story  does  not  stand  quite  alone;  a  parallel 
tradition  of  a  Gentile  embassy  to  Jesus  is  related  by  Eusebius.- 
This  ecclesiastical  historian  tells  how  Abgarus,  the  King  of 
Edessa  in  Mesopotamia,  sent  messengers  to  Jesus  with  a  letter 
entreating  Him  to  come  to  his  country  and  heal  the  royal  sup- 
pliant who  was  sick,  suggesting  also  that,  since  the  Jews  were 
murmuring  against  Jesus,  it  might  be  worth  His  while  to  take 

'  Dr.  Bruce  in  Expos.  Greek  N.  T.  quotes  Euthemius  Zigabenus :  "  May 
my  soul  become  a  widow  casting  out  the  devil  to  which  it  is  joined  and 
subject,  and  casting  into  the  treasury  of  God  two  lepta,  the  body  and  the 
mind;  the  one  made  light  by  temperance,  the  other  by  humility." 

"  Ecclesiastical  History,  i.  13. 


The  Greeks  Desire  to  See  Jesus  407 

up  His  permanent  residence  in  Edessa.  Whether  such  a  letter 
was  really  sent  to  Jesus,  we  do  not  know;  for  Eusebius,  the 
Father  of  Church  History,  writing  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourth 
century,  could  only  record  a  tradition  which  he  had  heard  from 
others,  and  while  intending  to  be  truthful,  he  is  not  reputed  to 
have  been  rigorously  critical.  While,  therefore,  we  dare  not 
identify  the  story  Eusebius  has  told  with  that  found  in  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  the  mere  existence  of  such  a  parallel  does  certainly 
tend  to  excite  popular  credence.  We  infer  from  St.  John's 
account  that  the  visitors  from  afar  who  sought  an  interview  with 
Jesus  were  not  Hellenists,  but  Greek  "  proselytes  of  the  Gate."  ^ 
Unless  we  identify  them  in  imagination  with  the  embassy  from 
Abgarus,  we  may  suppose  that  they  had  come  to  Jerusalem 
for  the  Passover  Feast,  and,  hearing  so  much  of  the  name  of 
Jesus  and  of  the  controversy  which  raged  about  His  authority, 
they  became  desirous  of  seeing  and  hearing  Him  for  themselves. 
From  their  presence  in  Jerusalem  during  Passover-week,  and 
from  the  serious  manner  in  which  Jesus  responded  to  their 
inquiry,  we  cannot  but  infer  that  these  men  were  genuine  seekers 
after  truth ;— already  they  appear  to  have  passed  from  the  lofty 
philosophies  of  Greece  to  the  pure  monotheistic  religion  of 
Israel;  and,  still  urged  on  by  their  desire  to  find  the  pearl  of 
great  price,  they  were  seeking  an  interview  with  Jesus.  Such 
inquirers  articulate  the  insatiable  thirst  for  religious  knowledge 
that  springs  up  in  the  hearts  of  men  in  every  land — a  divine 
unrest  drawing  men  to  Christ.  "  Possibly,"  as  Dr.  Greville 
Macdonald  says,  "  the  most  eager  of  questioners,  the  most  clear- 
sighted of  seers,  will  find  that,  to  our  limited  means  of  under- 
standing, the  only  possible  answer  to  some  questions  lies  in  a 
grant  of  increased  capacity  for  asking  yet  profounder  ques- 
tions." 2 

4.  No  student  of  the  Gospels  can  fail  to  feel  the  charm  of 
suggestiveness  inherent  in  the  record  that  once,  at  least,  Jesus 
came  into  direct  contact  with  the  Greek  spirit  of  rational  and 
religious  inquiry.  St.  Paul's  dictum,  that  the  wisdom  of  the 
world  is  foolishness  with  God,  is  not  to  be  applied  to  the  spirit 
of  genuine  philosophy.  Surely  the  Apostle  did  not  thus  stigma- 
tize that  noble   method  of   reasoning  which   is   inspired  by  a 

*'EXXj)vec,  not  'EXXrjvaTaL 

'  The  Tree  in  the  Midst,  p.  14. 


408  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

quenchless  thirst  for  the  true,  the  good  and  the  beautiful.  Be- 
cause, at  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era,  there  was  a  de- 
generate race  of  sophists  given  over  to  vain  logomachy  and 
fantastic  ecclecticism,  we  ought  not,  therefore,  to  place  under 
a  ban  the  instinctive  quests  of  all  noble  minds  for  truth  and 
goodness;  for,  however  wavering  and  uncertain  the  light  of 
reason  has  proved,  it  is  yet  a  beam  from  that  Light  which  lighteth 
every  man.  Just  as  the  human  race  brings  into  all  its  activities 
of  observation  and  classification  an  implicit  and  a  priori  plan  of 
the  universe  which  has  been  the  guide  of  all  science,  so  the  spirit 
in  man  proves  itself  to  be  the  source  of  ideals  and  of  all  noble 
promptings  in  the  philosophical  and  ethical  interpretations  of 
the  world;  and  in  some  measure  these  have  all  been  adumbra- 
tions of  the  truth  revealed  in  Jesus.  Among  all  the  various  races 
the  Greeks  were  most  fully  imbued  with  this  noble  spirit  of 
rational  inquiry,  which  was,  we  think,  predestined  to  find  in 
Christ  the  actuality  of  truth  which  corresponds  with  its  deepest 
^  questioning.  As  Moses  and  the  Prophets  proved  themselves  to 
be  pedagogues,  whose  highest  function  was  to  bring  men  to  the 
School  of  Christ,  so  ^schylus,  Plato  and  Phidias,  with  their 
allies — all  of  whom  sought  to  express  in  their  several  ways 
the  realities  of  the  Spirit  and  imagination — were  all  prophets 
of  the  ultimate  Ideal  which  we  believe  has  been  embodied  in 
Jesus.  And  both  Jews  and  Greeks  set  forth  with  intenser  reali- 
zation than  other  races  those  emotional  and  moral  states  of  our 
common  human  experience,  wherein  "  every  man,  woman  and 
child  has  glimpses  of  revelations,  tacit,  inexpressible,  into  a  world 
lying  beyond  and  around  the  world  of  material  limitations." 

5.  The  Greeks  cast  their  crowns  before  Jesus  because  they 
find  in  Him  the  universality  of  the  Perfect  Son  of  Man.  The 
Glory  of  Jesus  consists,  in  part  at  least,  in  His  marvellous  com- 
prehension and  synthesis  of  the  partial  insights  and  glimpses 
of  the  Ideal  which  have  visited  all  races.  We  cannot,  with 
accuracy,  speak  of  many  religions,  for  there  can  be  but  one 
true  religion ;  and  all  existing  systems  are  based  on  fragmentary 
apprehensions  of  the  catholic  truth.  Drawn  by  the  thought  of 
all  that  this  visit  of  the  Greeks  to  Jesus  signified,  we  are  naturally 
led  to  think  of  the  ancient  philosophy  of  their  race  which,  how- 
"^  ever  wonderful  in  itself,  was  too  exclusively  intellectual  in  its 
appeal  and  deficient  in  ethical  inspiration ; — its  light  is  cold  as 


The  Greeks  Desire  to  See  Jesus  409 

the  lunar  rays,  and  ineffectual  in  vivifying  human  hearts.  "  The 
highest  result  of  ancient  philosophy  had  been  the  conception  of 
the  world  as  a  system  of  thought,  related  to  God  as  His  word 
or  expression — i.e.  as  the  spoken  thought  is  related  to  the  man. 
This  conception,  however,  great  as  it  was,  did  not  present  God 
under  moral  attributes;  nor  did  it  bring  Him  near  to  the  con- 
science of  the  individual.  But  in  Christ,  the  writer  whom  the 
Church  calls  St.  John  saw  this  divine  thought  manifesting  itself 
in  human  life  as  truth  and  love ;  and  that  not  merely  or  fully 
through  a  past  visible  existence,  though  such  existence  had  been 
vouchsafed  as  '  a  sign,'  but  through  a  spirit  which  should  dwell 
in  men,  drawn  out  of  the  world,  won  from  sense  and  the  flesh 
forever."  ^  While  it  was  probably  a  characteristically  intellectual 
impulse  which  prompted  the  Greek  proselytes  to  inquire  after 
Jesus,  subsequent  reflection  would  show  them  that  He  who  had 
spoken  to  them  such  profound  mysticism  was  not  a  philosophic 
teacher  so  much  as  a  Lord  over  the  spirit  and  conscience.  Even 
today  Christianity  loses  its  moral  urgency  if  it  be  treated  as 
simply  another  system  of  ideas;  for,  while  Jesus  indirectly  re- 
sponded to  the  intellectual  questionings  of  men.  He  claimed,  as 
His  chief  function  in  our  world,  to  reveal  the  perfect  moral 
ideal  to  the  conscience  and  to  redeete  the  sinful  will  from  its 
bondage  in  the  iron  furnace  of  evil.  Even  Baur,  who  gave  so 
much  of  his  strength  to  the  discovery  of  the  historical  founda- 
tions of  the  Christian  religion,  admits  that,  "  had  Christianity 
been  nothing  more  than  such  a  doctrine  of  religion  and  morality, 
.  .  .  what  would  it  have  amounted  to,  and  what  would  come 
of  it?  True  though  it  be  that  when  we  regard  Christianity  in 
this  aspect,  it  comprised  and  summed  up  those  pure  and  simple 
truths  which  utter  themselves  in  man's  moral  and  religious 
consciousness,  and  that  it  opened  up  these  truths  to  the  common 
mind  in  the  plainest  and  most  popular  style;  yet  more  than  this 
was  needed.  .  .  .  When  we  consider  the  way  in  which  Chris- 
tianity grew  up,  it  is  plain  that  it  could  have  had  no  place  nor 
significance  in  history  but  for  the  Person  of  its  Founder  " !  ^ 
However,  the  greater  contains  the  less,  and  any  real  satisfaction 
of  the  moral  need  of  mankind  must  possess  an  inherent  ration- 
ality. Jesus  would  not  have  acquired  preeminence  among  men. 
had  His  teaching  been  inadequate  to  meet  the  intellectual  inquiry 

'  Professor  T.  H.  Green,  Works,  iii.,  pp.  242-3. 

'  The  First  Three  Christian  Centuries,  vol.  i.,  p.  27  (Eng.  ed.). 


410  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

of  the  Greeks.  While  both  St.  Paul  and  St.  John  magnified 
the  Redeeming  Love  which  was  revealed  in  Jesus,  they  also  set 
forth  that  Love  as  the  Wisdom  and  the  Logos  of  God.  The 
coming  of  the  Greeks  was  a  prophetic  type  of  Christ's  reign 
over  the  human  intellect  and  heart — a  reign  which  modern  ques- 
tionings have  but  helped  to  confirm. 

6.  "  Sir,"  ^  said  the  strangers  to  Philip,  "  we  would  see  Jesus." 
The  Greek  name  of  the  disciple  whom  they  approached  has 
prompted  the  thought  that  he  may  have  been  of  Greek  lineage. 
If  this  were  not  so  he  probably  belonged  to  Decapolis,  where 
he  may  have  had  some  connection  with  heathen  families.  The 
fact  that  Gentiles  should  desire  to  see  Jesus  at  this  stage  of  His 
Ministry  clearly  impressed  the  imagination  of  Philip  as  a  thing 
of  some  moment,  and  he  communicated  the  matter  to  Andrew, 
his  fellow-disciple,  who  accompanied  him  to  Jesus'  presence 
and  acted  as  spokesman.  The  apparent  hesitation  of  Philip 
may  have  arisen  from  his  Master's  remembered  assertion  that 
He  had  come  to  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel.  We  do 
not  know  whether  the  Greeks  waited  a  little  way  off  until 
permission  was  granted  them  to  approach ;  but  this  seems  most 
probable,  and  would  betray  the  innate  courtesy  of  the  visitors, 
and  it  also  gave  a  space  for  an  expression  of  the  emotion  felt 
by  Jesus  before  He  addressed  them  directly.  The  event  itself 
fits  in  with  the  sequences  of  His  experience  on  the  Wednesday 
previous  to  the  Crucifixion,  and  it  brought  a  momentary  solace 
to  the  lacerated  heart  of  Jesus;  for  He  deemed  it  a  beautiful 
prophecy  of  His  triumph  that,  in  the  hour  of  Jewish  official 
rejection  of  His  claims,  there  should  come  to  Him  ambassadors 
of  a  race  which  such  an  One  as  Jesus  could  not  but  admire 
and  love.  The  restriction  of  His  Ministry  to  the  Jews  was  but  a 
temporary  economy  practised  by  the  Master  because  of  the 
"  little  while "  which  He  would  stay  as  a  man  among  men. 
Upon  hearing  Andrew's  message  that  the  Greeks  sought  after 
Him,  Jesus  exclaimed,  "  The  hour  is  come  that  the  Son  of 
Man  should  be  glorified !  "  Such  an  ejaculation  can  be  under- 
stood in  its  connection  with  antecedent  and  subsequent  events; 
He  had  felt  Himself  straitened  until  He  should  receive  the 
Baptisnx  of  Blood ;  and  when  the  Cross  had  loomed  in  sight. 
He  had  set  His  face  toward  it  as  the  only  goal  of  His  life; 

*  John  xii.  20ff. 


The  Greeks  Desire  to  See  Jesus  411 

now  the  coming  of  these  strangers  drew  His  vision  toward  the 
future ;  He  looked  beyond  the  Cross  and  beheld  a  throne  whence  ^ 
He  would  wield  a  Messianic  sway  over  the  Gentiles.     It  is  sig- 
nificant that,  at  such  a  moment,  Jesus  should  use  a  title  for 
Himself  which  is  at  once  so  distinctively  Hebrew  and  yet  un- 
deniably universal  in  its  implications—"  the  Son  of  Man."    For 
centuries  the  Greek  and  Roman  mind  had,  all  unconsciously, 
moved  toward  the  Ideal  revealed  in  the  Son  of  Man.     First  the" 
philosophers  had  undermined  the  polytheism  of  popular  mythol- 
ogy in  their  quest  for  the  true  unity,  although  in  their  imperfect 
vision  the  Soul  of  the  World  was  rather  an  immanent  natural 
power  than  a  transcendent,  moral  Spirit.     This  longing  for  one 
God  had  impelled  these  sages  of  Greece  to  become  proselytes 
of  the  Hebrew  religion ;  but  the  inherent  direction  of  monotheism 
is  ever  Christward.     Plato  had  spoken  of  Christ,  even  as  Moses 
and  the  Prophets.     The  dramatists,  philosophers  and  sculptors 
of  ancient  Greece,  by  their  majestic  conceptions,  lofty  reasonings 
and  creations  of  perfect  symmetry  and  grace,  had  given  an  im- 
pulse toward  some  universal,  human  ideal  that  would  not  be 
thwarted  by  dalliance  with  veiled  corruptions.    Jesus  responded 
to  the  Greek  craving  for  a  Perfect  Ideal,  not  only  by  realizing 
it  in  Himself,  but  also  by  establishing  His  Messianic  Kingdom 
as  the  Divine  Antitype  of  that  political  wisdom  which  sought 
after  free  institutions  wherein  man  finds  the  true  Koinonia  with 
his  fellowmen.     "  The  hour  is  come  that  the  Son  of  Man  should 
be  glorified  I " 

7.  The  Evangelist  says  nothing  of  the  salutations  and  recipro- 
cated courtesies  in  the  meeting  of  these  Greek  inquirers  with 
Jesus;  whatever  our  natural  interest  in  a  beautiful  story  may 
be,  St'.  John  himself  passes  by  such  details  without  a  word,  writ- 
ing as  one  who  is  overwhelmed  by  the  amazing  disclosure  of  the 
Mind  of  Jesus  concerning  His  self-sacrifice.  In  following  his 
guidance,  we  do  not  make  ourselves  oblivious  of  the  historical 
incidents,  but  we  look  upon  these  simply  as  the  framework  from 
which  looks  out  the  Mind  of  Christ.  Fondly  as  we  would  gaze 
upon  the  form  and  hues  of  His  flesh,  our  supreme  quest  is 
that  we  may  learn  His  thought  and  action,  and  so  understand 
the  Divine  Secret  of  His  life.  Having  followed  step  by  step 
the  successive  unfoldments  of  the  meanings  and  motives  of  His 
necessary  and  self-determined  sacrifice,  we  shall  be  prepared  to 


412  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

find  profound  and  precious  ideas  in  the  simile  of  the  grain  of 
wheat  which  fructifies  only  in  death.  "  Unless,"  said  Jesus, 
"  the  grain  of  wheat  falls  into  the  ground  and  dies,  it  remains 
by  itself  alone :  but  if  it  die,  it  bears  plentiful  fruit."  Once  again 
Jesus  sets  forth  His  death  as  the  supreme  instance  of  the  opera- 
tion of  a  general  law.  Life  from  death  is  a  rule  in  nature  and 
in  morals.  It  applies  to  the  grain  of  wheat  and  to  the  life  of 
man,  although  in  the  spiritual  realm  its  action  is  informed  by 
thoughts,  feelings  and  purposes.  Reflection  stimulates  remem- 
brance of  the  manifold  appHcability  and  governance  of  this  idea 
of  life  from  death.  Self-culture  was  the  Greek  ideal;  but  the 
law  of  Jesus  was  self-sacrifice.  He  announces  a  power  of  spirit- 
ual emancipation  resulting  from  all  self-immolation  of  the  will. 
If  the  instinct  of  self-preservation  dominates  the  life,  it  is  doomed 
first  to  sterility,  and  then  to  dissolution.  The  ethic  of  Jesus 
flung  forth  in  this  aphorism,  and  exemplified  on  the  Cross,  will 
never  be  displaced  by  the  cold,  hard  brilliance  of  Goethe's  ideal 
of  universal  culture.  "He  who  loves  his  life,  loses  it:  and  he 
who  hates  his  life  in  this  world  shall  preserve  it  to  life  eternal." 
There  must  have  been  something  in  the  attitude  of  these  Greeks 
that  indicated  a  preparedness  to  receive  this  doctrine  of  dying  to 
live,  or  surely  Jesus  could  not  have  so  laid  bare  the  workings 
of  His  inmost  thoughts  to  them.  He  tells  them  that  His  ap- 
proaching doom  is  no  accident.  His  fate  is  governed  by  universal 
laws ;  His  life  could  not  be  snatched  out  of  the  hand  of  a  Fatherly 
Providence.  He  was  not  as  a  straw  in  the  wind,  nor  a  cork 
on  the  waves;  He  was  a  bold  swimmer  in  the  flood.  He  laid 
down  His  life ;  He  put  it  in  the  ground,  assured  that  a  new  life, 
multiplied  and  glorious,  would  spring  up.  He  waived  the  last 
possibilities  of  choosing  to  save  His  own  life,  and,  in  rejecting 
self-love  as  His  motive,  learned  the  fulness  of  Divine  Wis- 
dom and  Power.  By  laying  down  His  life  Jesus  realized  God's 
Eternal  life.  Professor  T.  H.  Green  wrote,  "  God  was  in  Him, 
so  that  what  He  did,  God  did.  A  death  unto  life,  a  life  out  of 
death,  must  then  be,  in  some  way,  the  essence  of  the  Divine 
nature;  must  be  an  act  which,  though  exhibited  once  for  all  in 
the  Crucifixion  and  Resurrection  of  Christ,  was  yet  eternal — the 
act  of  God  Himself.  For  that  very  reason,  however,  it  was  one 
perpetually  reenacted,  and  to  be  reenacted  by  man."  ^  The  dying 
and   rising  of  Jesus  are  appropriated  and  repeated  in  all  the 

^  Professor  T.  H.  Green,  Works,  Miscellanies,  vol.  iii.,  p.  233. 


The  Greeks  Desire  to  See  Jesus  413 

actual  processes  of  our  spiritual  life;  even  in  our  acceptance  of 
punishment  for  sin  and  in  the  consciousness  of  penitence,  we 
die  to  the  flesh  that  we  may  live  unto  God.  Death  is  the  setting 
free  of  germinal  possibilities — true  alike  of  a  grain  of  wheat, 
of  an  acorn,  of  a  man.  By  going  into  the  ground,  Jesus  made 
it  beautiful  with  resurrection  life.  The  laws  of  life  are  uni- 
versal ;  yet  the  rule  of  dying  to  live  is,  in  mere  animals  and  lower 
organisms,  an  impulse  toward  a  utilitarian  satisfaction ;  but  in 
man  it  is  the  struggle  to  realize  an  ideal.  In  this  simile  of  the 
grain  of  wheat  dying  to  live  again,  Jesus  enunciated  the  law  of 
perfection — love  for  others.  Every  self-denial  is  a  part  of  the 
process  of  daily  dying;  every  step  in  such  death  is  a  condition 
for  unfolding  higher  potentialities ;  and,  in  the  end,  even  physical 
death  may  be  accepted  as  the  entrance  into  fuller  activity  of 
living. 

8.  While  the  Son  of  Man  cherished  no  morbid  sentiment  of 
self-pity,  still  He  was  wounded  by  the  rejection  of  His  claims  by 
the  Jews ;  and  as  He  saw  the  Greeks  seeking  Him,  He  felt  the 
contrast  they  made  with  the  hostile  rulers  and  there  was  wrung 
from  His  heart  a  cry  of  poignant  distress :  "  Now  is  My  soul 
troubled;  and  what  am  I  to  say?  Father,  save  Me  from  this 
hour?  Nay,  it  was  for  this  that  I  came  to  this  hour.  Father, 
glorify  Thy  name !  "  It  seemed  as  though  the  serene  depth  of 
even  His  faith  was  disturbed  by  a  paroxysm  of  mental  agony. 
He  was  still  a  young  man,  and  the  self-preserving  instincts  of 
His  nature  revolted  from  the  prevision  of  His  tragic  destiny. 
It  was,  however,  only  a  momentary  disturbance:  the  life-long 
habit  of  filial  obedience  swiftly  resumed  its  sway,  and  He  breathed 
His  longing  to  complete  the  manifestation  of  His  Father's  Name, 
i.e.  His  Father's  character  and  purpose.  This  experience  came 
to  Him  as  a  passing  anticipation  of  a  struggle  to  be  gone  through 
in  Gethsemane.  That  it  was  historic  is  most  probable,  since  the 
dominating  conception  of  the  Fourth  Gospel — of  the  Logos  taber- 
nacling among  men — would  naturally  preclude  the  invention  of 
a  painful  struggle  which  seems  to  contradict  all  our  presupposi- 
tions of  what  an  Incarnation  must  involve.  We  do  not  interpret 
this  as  intended  by  St.  John  to  take  the  place  of  the  soul-wrestle 
transacted  in  the  Garden  which  is  recorded  by  the  Synoptics; 
but  we  take  it  to  be  an  historic  foreshadowing  of  that  agony, 
and  the  Evangelist  enables  us  to  discern  the  motives  and  aims 


414  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

of  Jesus  which  sustained  Him  in  His  resolution  to  lay  down  His 
life.  His  determination  to  die  was  no  fanatical  quixotism;  it 
was,  rather,  the  uttermost  expression  of  moral  wisdom  and  love. 
Only  by  His  dying  would  He  be  able  to  satisfy  the  universal 
quest  that  the  coming  of  the  Greeks  represented.  When  lifted 
up  from  the  earth  He  would  draw  all  men  unto  Him.  The  centre 
of  gravity  in  His  Messianic  ministry  was  transferred  from  Jeru- 
salem to  the  realm  of  Eternal  Verities.  The  Cross  did  not  ob- 
struct His  pathway  to  the  throne ;  it  was  itself  the  way — through 
death  to  life.  The  Spirit  of  His  life  was  gathered  up  and 
focused  on  the  Cross,  and  from  His  death  have  issued  the  fruits 
of  resurrection  life.  Thus  did  Jesus  translate  the  physical  meta- 
phor of  dying  into  a  Spiritual  act  which  expressed  ethically  all 
His  life-thoughts  and  purposes.  He  was  completing  the  mani- 
festation of  His  Father's  Name.  The  least  meaning  that  we 
can  attribute  to  this  soliloquy  which  the  Greeks  overheard  is 
that  in  His  self-sacrifice  Jesus  gave  the  world  a  symbol  of  the 
Father;  He  manifested  His  Name.  God  cannot  be  morally  less 
than  the  highest  man.  Jesus  gives  the  Ariadne  clue  which  shall 
guide  us  in  the  labyrinth  of  this  world :  God  is  love ;  and  love  is 
ever  bestowing  itself. 

9.  According  to  the  Evangelist,  there  came  from  the  sky  an 
answering  voice  to  the  cry  of  Jesus.  Some  of  the  bystanders 
said  it  thundered;  others  interpreted  the  sound  to  signify  words 
of  Divine  approval.  Acquaintance  with  the  recorded  experiences 
of  the  mystics  forbids  the  rash  assumption  that  this  Heavenly 
Voice  was  a  delusion ;  and,  however  psychologists  may  explain 
such  phenomena,  we  are  face  to  face  with  the  fact  that  such  voices 
played  important  parts  in  the  lives  of  Francis  Xavier,  Jeanne 
d'Arc,  and  George  Fox.  All  the  Gospels  represent  Jesus  as 
being  the  receiver  of  such  audible  messages  at  the  great  crises 
of  His  mission — at  His  baptism,  on  the  Mount  of  Transfigura- 
tion ;  and  now,  in  the  temple-courts,  the  revelation  was  given 
of  His  Father's  approval.  The  assurance  was  given  to  Jesus 
once  more  that  death  should  be  no  defeat,  but  the  fulfilment  and 
triumph  of  all  His  work.  The  Son  of  Man  would  be  enthroned 
in  the  Heavens;  from  that  seat  of  Divine  Power  He  would 
exercise  a  universal  attraction.  This  was,  indeed,  a  startling 
transformation  of  the  popular  Messianic  ideal;  and  few  were 
found  ready  to  receive  it  then,  since  it  contradicted  the  primary 


The  Greeks  Desire  to  See  Jesus  415 

postulates  of  a  narrow  patriotism.  Perplexed  by  this  strange 
doctrine  of  the  exaltation  of  the  Son  of  Man,  some  of  the  listeners 
inquired  whom  He  thus  designated,  since  the  Scriptures  taught 
that  the  Messiah  abides  for  ever.  The  Evangelist  declares  that 
the  true  cause  of  the  blindness  and  hostility  of  the  Jews  was 
that  "  they  loved  the  honour  of  men  more  than  the  honour  of 
God."  And  yet,  in  spite  of  their  enmity,  John  says  "many 
even  of  the  rulers  believed  on  Him."  Among  the  final  utter- 
ances of  Jesus  in  the  temple  are  His  charges  against  the  Jews 
that  they  remain  in  darkness,  though  He  had  brought  them  light ; 
and,  since  they  reject  Himself,  whom  God  had  sent,  they  resolve 
themselves  into  practical  atheists.  He  came  not  with  the  in- 
tention of  judging  the  world,  but  rather  of  saving  it;  yet  it 
was  inevitable  that  they  should  be  judged  by  the  Revelation 
they  refused.  How  remote  were  the  leading  Jews  of  that  day 
from  the  ethic  of  self-sacrifice  of  which  Jesus  had  spoken  to 
the  Greeks!  That  word  has  thrown  a  luminous  track  over  the 
devious  paths  of  human  history.  With  this  twofold  revelation 
of  self-sacrifice  and  of  the  world's  condemnation,  Jesus  con- 
cluded His  public  ministry  of  teaching.  During  the  ensuing 
hours  He  secreted  Himself  from  public  attention,  using  the 
opportunity  for  giving  final  instructions  to  His  disciples. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  APOCALYPSE  OF  JESUS' 

I.  An  unprejudiced  examination  of  the  extant  records  of  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  shows  that,  with  His  perfect  ethic  of  man's 
present  Hfe,  He  combined  apocalyptic  and  eschatological  ideas 
which  are  utterly  discordant  with  the  trend  of  modern  thought. 
The  kerygma  of  the  Kingdom  has  been  placed  in  the  forefront 
of  modern  presentations  of  Christ's  teaching  as  at  least  equally 
important  with  the  idea  of  the  Divine  Fatherhood ;  but  although 
the  present-day  emphasis  falls  upon  the  social  ethic  of  the  King- 
dom, in  the  Gospels  we  find  apocalyptic  and  eschatological  ideas 
inextricably  woven  into  the  warp  and  woof  of  Christ's  doctrine 
of  the  Messianic  Reign.  Whatever  may  be  our  personal  predi- 
lections in  this  matter,  and  however  much  we  should  prefer  a 
Messianic  Ideal  shorn  of  such  Jewish  associations,  still  we  must 
be  faithful  to  the  historical  method,  giving  due  recognition  to 
all  the  integral  parts  of  our  Lord's  teaching,  and  seeking  without 
bias  to  discover  their  true  interpretation.  We  note  that  the  age 
in  which  Jesus  lived  was  characterized  by  a  proneness  to  indulge 
in  apocalyptic  visions  of  crisis  and  catastrophe.  This  section 
of  Jewish  literature  was  pseudonymous ;  the  producers  of  it  con- 
cealed themselves  behind  the  great  names  of  patriarchs  and 
prophets.  While  the  germs  of  apocalypse  were  present  from 
early  times  in  the  Jewish  mind,  we  may  describe  this  class  of 
literature  as  differing  from  ordinary  prophecy,  and  from  the 
theophanic  visions  of  the  older  prophets,  in  that  these  were  to  be 
fulfilled  in  the  present  seon,  while  the  apocalypse  relates  specific- 
ally to  the  dispensation  of  the  end ;  unfolding,  in  hieroglyph  and 
fantasy,  the  consummation  of  the  great  drama  of  the  Divine 
Revelation  and  of  Human  History.  The  apocalypse  has  been 
called  "  the  stormy  petrel  of  religious  literature  " ;  its  motif  is  the 
conviction  that  life  has  become  so  terrible  that  it  cannot  be  long 
held  back  from  some  climactic  judgement.     In  the  similitudes 

*  Matt.  xxiv. ;  Mark  xiii. ;  Luke  xxi.  The  trend  of  recent  New  Testa- 
ment criticism  is  to  lay  increasing  emphasis  upon  the  validity  of  the 
apocalyptic  elements  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 

416 


The  Apocalypse  of  Jesus  417 

of  the  Book  of  Enoch,  for  example,  one  of  the  chief  functions 
of  the  Messiah  is  that  of  judgement.  While  popular  Messianism 
conceived  of  David's  Son  making  Zion  the  centre  of  a  reestab- 
lished reign,  into  which  the  chosen  people  should  enter  by  right 
of  their  descent  from  Abraham,  it  also  anticipated  that  the 
extension  of  this  rule  over  all  nations  should  be  preceded  by 
judgement  and  catastrophic  condemnations.  Not  only  do  these 
apocalypses  of  Judaism  help  us  to  understand  the  oscillation  of 
opinion  about  Jesus  and  the  frequent  disappointment  of  great 
spiritually  minded  Jews  such  as  John  the  Baptist  as  they  watched 
His  career,  but  they  also  disclose  the  original  sources  of  the 
eschatological  ideas  and  language  adopted  by  Jesus  Himself. 
We  believe  that  He  assimilated  and  used  these  just  as  He 
employed  also  the  categories  of  natural  science  current  in  that 
age,  and  also  as  He  treated  the  phenomena  of  hysteria  and 
madness  according  to  the  Jewish  beliefs  concerning  demon- 
possession.  These  things  constituted  parts  of  the  Messiah's 
environment  and  mental  inheritance,  and  the  timeless  message 
He  brought  had  necessarily  to  be  uttered  in  the  popular  and 
understandable  language  of  that  age.  In  thus  acknowledging 
the  influence  of  the  Zeit-geist  upon  Jesus  Himself,  it  is  by  no 
means  implied  that  both  the  psychology  and  eschatology  of  that 
age  must  be  discarded  as  untrue ;  the  truth  and  validity  of  such 
ideas  must  still  be  measured  by  the  reason  and  conscience  of 
the  race  in  the  light  of  all  added  knowledge :  the  utmost  we  assert 
is,  that  however  much  may  have  been  due  to  the  Jewish  ancestry 
and  contemporary  culture,  still  there  is  in  the  Personality  and 
Preaching  of  Jesus  a  timeless  Word,  possessing  an  abiding 
authority  for  the  spiritual  mind. 

2.  Fidelity  to  the  records  preserved  in  the  Gospels  compels 
us  to  acknowledge  that  Jesus  Himself  adopted  the  apocalyptic 
forms  of  utterance,  and  clothed  His  thoughts  of  the  future  in 
figures  and  pictorial  representations  that  had  their  origin  in  the 
school  of  the  Apocalyptists.  Many  thoughtful  Christians  wou'd 
experience  immense  relief  if  the  discourse  on  the  last  things 
attributed  to  Jesus  could  be  lightly  dismissed  as  the  interpolation 
of  one  of  the  current  Jewish  pseudepigraphical  apocalypses  of 
that  age.  Today  we  delight  in  views  of  evolution,  of  graduated 
and  slow  progressive  movements  from  protoplasmic  beginnings 
up  to  a  perfect  state,  the  whole  process  being  carried  through 


418  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

from  end  to  end  without  break  or  interruption;  but  in  the 
apocalyptic  literature  of  the  Jews  there  were  no  soft  nuances 
of  development,  all  the  transitions  were  conceived  as  swift, 
sudden  and  dreadful.  On  the  other  hand,  we  do  find  in  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  many  thoughts  of  a  slow,  gradual  development 
of  the  Reign  of  God,  to  illustrate  which  He  spoke  many  parables 
— several  of  the  most  striking  being  taken  from  the  familiar 
instances  of  sowing,  germination,  growth,  fructification  and  har- 
vest. The  method  often  adopted  in  dealing  with  the  dualism  of 
the  parables  and  the  apocalyptic  sayings  of  Jesus  is  one  of 
mental  suppression  of  the  less  agreeable  factor,  which,  however 
unintentional,  results  in  the  exclusion  of  part  of  the  teaching  of 
our  Lord.  Some  of  the  apocalyptic  sayings  have  that  "  real 
double  attestation  "  which  is  "  the  nearest  approach  that  we  can 
hope  to  get  to  the  common  tradition  of  the  earliest  Christian 
Society  about  our  Lord's  words."  Those  who  put  any  belief  in 
the  historical  nucleus  of  the  Gospels  can  have  no  doubt  that 
Jesus  was  not  only  familiar  with  apocalyptic  literature,  but  that 
He  Himself  appropriated  some  of  its  terminology  for  the  ex- 
pression of  certain  of  His  own  cherished  ideals.  How  utterly 
inadequate  is  that  treatment  of  the  New  Testament  doctrine  of 
"  the  Kingdom  of  God  "  which  tacitly  excludes  all  reference  to 
its  eschatological  implications!  Further,  it  is  unjustifiable  to 
reduce  our  Lord's  self-chosen  title — "  the  Son  of  Man  " — to  sig- 
nify nothing  more  than  the  Aramaic  for  "  Man,"  and  brusquely 
set  aside  all  the  apocalyptic  associations  of  this  Messianic  title. 
Just  as  fragments  of  rock  carry  their  own  testimony  of  the 
geological  strata  to  which  they  belong,  so  such  phrases  as  these, 
however  much  transformed  by  the  Mind  of  Jesus,  bear  witness 
of  themselves  that  they  belong  to  the  apocalyptic  tradition  of 
that  age.  And  besides  such  distinctive  phrases  as  these,  we  find 
imbedded  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  sayings  that  are  undoubtedly 
authentic,  and  yet  which  share  in  the  apocalyptic  ideals  current 
in  the  contemporary  Judaism.  The  recognition  of  these  scattered 
fragments  of  that  peculiar  section  of  Jewish  tradition  in  the 
general  preaching  of  Jesus  prepares  us  to  admit  the  genuineness 
of  the  apocalypse  which  is  attributed  to  Him.  Such  apocalyptic 
utterances  subsequently  exercised  a  great  formative  influence 
upon  apostolic  teaching:  hence,  it  has  been  suggested  that  this 
particular  fragment  of  Christ's  doctrine  may  have  been  trans- 
mitted orally  or  circulated  as  a  popular  fly-leaf  of  His  sayings 


The  Apocalypse  of  Jesus  419 

from  the  earliest  times.  Some  such  "  Word  of  the  Lord  "  appears 
to  have  been  known  to  St.  Paul  and  to  the  Primitive  Church 
generally,  and  the  circulation  of  the  apocalyptic  sayings  of  Jesus 
would  account  for  the  general  expectation  of  His  parousia, 
which  is  witnessed  by  the  Johannine  writings  and  Pauline  epistles. 
This  acceptance  of  the  Gospel  apocalypse  lays  upon  the  reader 
the  difficult  and  delicate  task  of  disentangling  the  diverse  frag- 
ments of  Jewish  eschatology  from  the  essential  ideas  of  Jesus. 
We  may  adopt  without  reserve  "  the  findings  "  of  one  of  the  most 
cautious  of  living  scholars :  "  I  believe  that  our  Lord  used  a  great 
deal  of  eschatological  language;  that  His  language  was,  gen- 
erally speaking,  more  eschatological  in  its  origin  than  at  one 
time  supposed.  But  does  it  follow  that  eschatology  exhausted 
the  meaning  of  this  language;  that  its  fulfilment  was  bound  to 
be  exclusively  eschatological?  I  do  not  think  it  does  follow." 
"  Our  Lord  rarely  took  up  a  Jewish  idea  without  recasting  it 
in  a  form  of  His  own."  ^ 

3.  In  dealing  with  the  apocalyptic  element  of  Christ's  teach- 
ing we  ought  to  keep  in  mind  the  fact  that  Jesus  predicted  not 
only  His  own  death,  but  also  His  reappearance;  and,  with  that 
note  of  authority  and  transcendence  which  characterized  Him, 
inculcated  upon  His  disciples  the  duty  of  watchfulness  for  His 
return.  In  His  own  personal  outlook  it  appears  that  Jesus 
anticipated  the  Cross  as  the  beginning  of  His  Messianic  reign, 
and  that  from  that  point  the  Kingdom  should  increase  anal- 
ogously with  the  seed  sown  into  the  soil ;  but,  besides  this 
graduated  progress,  He  also  foretold  certain  crises  and  epochs, 
although  He  disclaimed  knowledge  of  times  and  seasons.  One 
of  the  outstanding  moments  of  this  future  history  of  the  King- 
dom was  designated  by  Jesus  as  "  the  beginning  of  birth-pangs."  ' 
In  this  memorable  phrase  we  possess  not  merely  a  vague  predic- 
tion but  a  metaphor  which  reflects  the  travail  and  struggle  of  the 
initial  processes  of  the  Coming  of  the  Kingdom,  The  forecast 
of  the  persecution  of  the  apostles  may  have  been  uttered  by 
Jesus  Himself,  but  it  is  not  beyond  credence  that  this  vision  of 
pain  and  trial  may  have  been  reflected  back  upon  His  Ministry 
from  the  painful  experience  of  the  Church,  caught  in  the  throes 

• "  The  Bearing  of  Criticism  upon  Gospel  History,"  by  Professor  San- 
day,  Expos.  Times,  vol.  xx.,  No.  4,  January,  1909. 
*  apx^  udivuv. 


420  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

of  a  life  and  death  struggle  thirty  or  forty  years  later.  Our 
difficulty  is  increased  by  characteristic  differences  in  the  respec- 
tive Gospels;  the  apocalyptic  utterances  are  grouped  into  an  or- 
derly discourse  by  St.  Matthew,  although  these  same  sayings  are 
distributed  in  utterly  different  connections  by  the  third  evangelist.^ 
Again,  while  St.  Mark  places  the  prediction  of  apostolic  persecu- 
tion at  the  end  of  the  ministry,  St.  Matthew  gives  it  in  connection 
with  the  commission  of  the  Twelve  to  take  up  their  first  Galilean 
mission. 2  When  we  observe  that  the  haunting  allusion  to  "  the 
abomination  of  desolation "  is  accentuated  by  an  exhortation, 
"  let  him  that  readeth  understand,"  we  at  once  remember  that 
Jesus  did  not  write  His  discourses.  Still  another  evidence  of 
the  mingling  of  subsequent  reflections  with  the  teaching  of  our 
Lord  is  found  in  the  statement, — "  unless  the  Lord  had  shortened 
the  days,  no  flesh  would  have  been  saved:  but  for  the  elect's 
sake,  whom  He  chose,  he  shortened  the  days " — a  statement 
manifestly  dating  from  a  time  later  than  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem.  We  have  already  pointed  out  that  an  alloy  of  Juda- 
istic  symbolism  is  blended  with  the  pure  gold  of  Christ's  thought ; 
but  now  we  find  that  additions  from  a  later  stage  of  history 
have  been  made  to  the  record  of  the  sayings  of  the  Master. 
Such  a  mingling  of  various  elements  does  not  invalidate  the 
authority  of  the  Words  of  Jesus;  but  it  does,  without  doubt, 
render  somewhat  doubtful  whether  certain  words  were  really 
spoken  by  Him.  Unfortunately  we  lack  the  artificer's  cunning 
which  enables  him  to  burn  up,  with  a  spirit  of  fiery  acid,  the 
alloy  which  he  has  used  to  harden  the  precious  metal ;  in  our 
attempt  to  extricate  Christ's  original  authoritative  revelation 
from  its  contemporary  associations  we  have  to  proceed  slowly, 
tentatively  and  painfully,  menaced  ever  with  the  fear  lest  we 
should  be  guilty  of  destroying  some  of  the  fine  gold  of  Truth. 
But  such  perils  make  the  duty  of  investigation  more  urgent,  and 
the  task  is  laid  upon  us  to  rediscover  what  is  the  essential  Revela- 
tion of  Jesus  for  us. 

4.  The  use  of  the  title  "  the  Son  of  Man  "  in  the  Books  of 
Daniel  and  of  Enoch,  conveys  an  apocalyptic  connotation,  and 
has  made  it  impossible  for  any  ordinary  man  to  appropriate 
this  Messianic   designation.     The   functions  attributed  to  "  the 

^Cf.  Matt.  xxiv.  26-28;  Luke  xii.  39-46;  xvii.  24;  and  Matt.  xxiv.  42-51. 
*  Matt.  X.  17-22. 


The  Apocalypse  of  Jesus  421 

Son  of  Man"  are  supernatural;  He  is  to  rule  and  judge  the 
nations  when  He  cometh  in  the  clouds  of  heaven.  In  choosing 
this  title  for  Himself,  Jesus  could  not  have  been  oblivious  of  its 
apocalyptic  associations;  it  necessarily  carries  the  implication  of 
a  colossal  claim  to  the  Messiahship,  and  could  scarcely  be  justi- 
fied unless  Jesus  were  the  Superior  of  all  other  historic  men. 
In  adopting  this  Name  Jesus  transformed  it  by  its  predicates 
just  as  He  gradually  spiritualized  the  conception  of  the  Kingdom 
which  was  announced  by  John  the  Baptist.  The  supreme  instance 
of  this  marvellous  transfusion  of  an  accepted  Messianic  ideal 
with  a  new  and  exalted  meaning  is  found  in  the  declaration 
that  "  the  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to 
minister,  and  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many."  But,  blended 
with  this  conception  of  a  redemptive  work,  we  find  apocalyptic 
declarations  which  sprang  from  the  common  stock  of  Judaistic 
ideas.  One  of  the  vital,  determinative  apocalyptic  affirmations 
concerning  the  Son  of  Man  made  by  Jesus  Himself  was  that 
the  Son  of  Man  will  return  to  the  world  with  Messianic  glory 
and  majesty.  Although  quite  alien  from  modern  modes  of 
thought,  no  student  of  the  New  Testament  can  avoid  the  con- 
clusion that  the  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  played  an 
important  part  in  the  formation  of  the  Apostolic  Church.  But 
while  this  parousia-idea.  is  homogeneous  with  the  apocalyptic 
tradition  of  the  Primitive  Church,  the  "  congenial  Messianic  be- 
liefs of  contemporary  Judaism  would  hardly  have  been  sufficient 
to  start  the  opinion,  unless  it  had  some  basis  in  the  authority  of 
Christ."  ^  Since  that  hope  has  nearly  faded  like  some  delusive 
mirage  from  the  horizon,  many  would  fain  believe  that  Jesus 
was  not  the  originator  of  this  false  expectation.  There  can,  how- 
ever, be  little  or  no  doubt  that,  in  His  examination  before  the 
chief-priests,  Jesus  affirmed  that  the  Son  of  Man  would  come 
again :  "  The  high-priest  asked  Him  ,  .  .  Art  thou  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  the  Blessed?  And  Jesus  said,  I  am:  and  ye  shall 
see  the  Son  of  Man  sitting  on  the  right  hand  of  power,  and 
coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven."  ^  It  would  afford  a  facile 
escape  from  our  dilemma  could  we  acquiesce  in  Professor  J.  E. 
Carpenter's  conjecture,  that  in  using  the  title  "  the  Son  of  Man," 
Jesus  intended  it  as  a  personification  of  the  Kingdom  rather  than 
as  a  personal  appellation :  "  The  invariable  employment  of  the 

*  Moffatt's  Historical  New  Testament,  pp.  268,  637!, 
'Mark  xiv.  61,  62.    Cf.  Dan.  vii.  13,  14. 


422  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

third  person  suggests  that  He  intended  to  draw  a  clear  distinc- 
tion between  Himself  and  His  own  function,  and  the  event 
which  He  designates  by  this  emblematic  name."  ^  Now,  although 
we  admit  that  there  may  have  been  occasions  when  Jesus  identi- 
fied Himself  with  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  some  such  way  as  this, 
still  there  is  no  warrant  for  the  assertion  that  He  usually  em- 
ployed the  name,  "  Son  of  Man,"  in  this  impersonal  way.  Once 
again,  we  recollect  the  fact  that  Jesus  was  animated  by  two 
abiding  convictions — first,  that  He  would  personally  survive  the 
catastrophe  of  death ;  and,  secondly,  that  the  Divine  Reign  would 
be  brought  about  by  His  Resurrection  from  the  dead.  Having 
made  all  allowances  for  the  inevitable  modifications  which  mem- 
ory might  make  in  Christ's  words;  for  the  changes  which 
might  be  occasioned  by  translation  from  Aramaic  into  a 
literary  language ;  for  the  possibility  that  the  knowledge  of  subse- 
quent events  might  be  thrown  back  upon  His  earthly  teaching; 
for  the  probability  that  current  apocalyptic  ideas  would  mingle 
with  His  eschatological  doctrines, — having  made  full  allow- 
ances for  all  these  natural  tendencies,  we  still  adhere  to  the 
belief  that  Jesus  Himself  did  actually  forecast  the  future — 
both  immediate  and  remote — of  the  Reign  of  God,  which  He 
affirmed  was  come  already,  and  yet  was  still  to  come.  Whether 
it  be  judged  afterwards  that  it  was  a  part  of  Christ's  kenosis 
and  humiliation  to  participate  in  erroneous  views  of  the  age,  or 
whether  these  apocalyptic  utterances  be  regarded  as  authoritative 
for  the  belief  of  the  Church,  it  is  at  least  incumbent  upon  us 
to  view  them  as  exhibiting,  in  some  measure,  the  faith  which 
actually  sustained  Jesus  during  those  final  days  of  His  Passion. 

5.  So  far,  our  quest  after  the  veritable  words  of  Jesus  has 
led  us  to  acknowledge  the  influence  upon  His  mind  of  contem- 
porary Jewish  eschatology ;  but,  in  order  to  perceive  the  full 
perspective  of  these  apocalyptic  ideas,  our  glance  must  flit  rapidly 
over  kindred  thoughts  embodied  in  pagan  mythology  and  folk- 
lore. The  parousia-'idea.  has  coloured  the  thoughts  of  many 
nations.  The  followers  of  Gautama  believe  that  Buddha  will 
come  again  to  consummate  the  redemption  of  mankind.  Ac- 
cording to  the  Hindus,  Kalki,  who  is  one  of  Vishnu's  impersona- 
tions, will  come  at  the  termination  of  the  fourth  age  to  destroy 
the  depraved  world  and  restore  a  new  age  of  purity.     The  Roman 

*  Professor  J.  E.  Carpenter,  The  First  Three  Gospels,  p.  255. 


The  Apocalypse  of  Jesus  423 

people,  in  the  second  half  of  the  first  century,  expected  some 
great  Saviour  to  come  from  the  East,  and  many  identified  Ves- 
pasian with  the  Divine  Hero.  Similar  apocalyptic  notions  were 
spread  through  Persia  and  Babylon.  Hammurabi,  whose  "  Code 
of  Laws  "  has  been  rediscovered  in  recent  times,  was  expected 
to  come  again;  while  the  Zoroastrians  believed  that  the  strife 
between  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman  would  be  terminated  by  the 
intervention  of  some  coming  Saviour.^  For  many  modern  minds 
these  and  kindred  phenomena  of  comparative  hierology  give  new 
force  and  completeness  to  the  critical  work  of  Strauss,  and 
seem  to  justify  the  conclusion  that,  "  in  fundamentals,  Christism 
is  but  Paganism  reshaped."  ^  But  the  spear  of  Achilles  can 
heal  the  wounds  which  it  has  made ;  instead  of  crudely  acquiesc- 
ing in  the  hypothesis  that  the  New  Testament  writers  borrowed 
from  pagan  mythology,  we  venture  rather  to  conceive  of  the 
Christian  religion  as  the  fulfilment  of  universal  human  thoughts 
which  spring  out  of  definite  instincts  and  needs  of  mankind. 
These  widespread  apocalyptic  dreams  betray  an  almost  universal 
instinct;  myths  of  the  coming  of  some  world-saviour  to  bring 
in  the  golden  age  of  peace  after  judging  mankind  in  righteous- 
ness, ought  not  to  be  treated  as  idle  dreams  and  poetic  illusions ; 
they  are,  rather,  the  struggling  embodiments  of  Divine  Wisdom 
and  the  stammering  utterance  of  ultimate  truths.  The  existence 
of  a  Platonic  "  apocalypse  "  does  not  invalidate  the  Johannine 
Revelation;  the  Hindu  expectancy  that  Kalki  will  be  revealed 
in  the  sky,  seated  on  a  white  horse,  with  a  drawn  sword  in 
his  hand,  in  nowise  deprives  of  its  cogency  the  Pauline  symbol- 
ism, "  For  the  Lord  Himself  shall  descend  from  heaven,  with  a 
shout,  with  the  voice  of  the  archangel,  and  with  the  trump  of 
God."  That  mode  of  criticism  which  begins  by  stripping  the 
sayings  of  Jesus  of  all  their  Jewish  accretions,  and  then  goes  on 
further  to  subtract  everything  in  His  teaching  which  has  an 
appearance  of  affinity  with  pagan  mythology,  is  inherently  wrong ; 
and  the  more  ruthlessly  it  is  carried  out,  the  farther  is  the  mind 
borne  away  from  the  truth.  The  Lord  Jesus  fulfilled  the  uni- 
versal instincts  of  human  nature  as  certainly  as  He  brought  to 
their  perfection  the  Law  and  the  Prophets  of  the  Hebrew  race; 
He  not  only  gave  the  world  a  perfect  moral  ideal  in  teaching 
and   example,   but   He   also   vindicated   and   consummated   the 

*  E.    Clodd,   Myths   and   Dreams;    Monier-Williams,   Hinduism,   etc. 
*J.  M.  Robertson,  Pagan  Christs. 


424  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

universal  hopes  of  mankind  for  some  reasonable  denouement  to 
the  drama  of  history  in  the  Symbolism  of  the  Apocalypse  He 
delivered  to  His  Apostles.  Though  it  may  be  more  congenial 
to  European  minds  to  dwell  on  the  ethical  message  of  Jesus 
which  He  expressed  so  perfectly  in  the  assertion  that  "  the 
Kingdom  of  God  is  within  you,"  still  it  is  our  duty  to  study  also 
His  apocalyptic  utterances,  and  seek  to  penetrate  to  the  heart 
of  these  pictorial  and  symbolic  representations  of  His  abiding 
faith  when  He  confronted  the  Cross. 

6.  When  our  Lord  was  leaving  the  temple  for  the  last  time  ^ — 
perhaps  on  the  evening  of  Wednesday  of  the  Passion-week — • 
one  of  His  patriotic  followers  ofifered  to  escort  Him  over  all  the 
buildings  of  that  national  sanctuary,  pointing  out  with  patriotic 
pride  the  glory  of  the  architecture  and  the  accumulated  wealth 
within.  Whether  Jesus  accepted  the  proffered  guidance,  is  not 
stated ;  but  the  Evangelist  records  that  He  warned  the  admiring 
disciples  that  however  magnificent  the  temple  was,  speedily  a 
time  would  come  when  "  there  shall  not  be  left  here  one  stone 
upon  another  that  shall  not  be  thrown  down."  With  this  word 
of  doom  on  His  lips,  Jesus  left  His  Father's  House  to  return 
no  more.  He  spent  the  night  either  at  Bethany  or  on  the 
Mount  of  Olives.  As  he  was  sitting  on  the  Mount  the  next 
morning,  His  disciples — four  of  them  privately,  says  St.  Mark — 
recalled  the  word  of  doom,  and  inquired  both  when  these 
things  shall  be,  and  what  shall  be  the  signs  of  their  approach. 
St.  Matthew  distinguishes  between  His  coming  again  and  the 
end  of  the  age.^  Students  of  Old  Testament  prophecy  who 
admit  that  Amos,  Isaiah  and  their  compeers  were  gifted  with 
power  to  gauge  the  moral  meaning  and  direction  of  the  move- 
ments of  national  life,  will  not  grudge  the  admission  that  Jesus 
possessed,  in  fuller  measure,  this  moral  insight  and  predictive 
power.  The  inspiration  we  attribute  to  the  ancient  prophets 
resolves  itself  into  a  temporary  form  of  Divine  incarnation, 
and  the  permanent  incarnation  we  attribute  to  Jesus  resulted  at 
least  in  an  abiding  inspiration.  For  weeks  and  months  prior  to 
the  closing  in  of  His  foes  upon  Him,  Jesus  uttered  vaticinations 
both  of  His  own  death  and  of  Jerusalem's  awful  fate,  while  out 
of  the  midst  of  this  dark  forecast  He  projected  a  splendour  of 

'Mark  xiii.   1-4;  Matt.   xxiv.  1-3;  Luke  xxi.  5. 
2  irapovaia  and  awrcActa  rod  alavoi. 


The  Apocalypse  of  Jesus  425 

hope  that  even  His  most  intimate  disciples  failed  to  understand. 
It  seems  impossible  to  deny  Christ's  recurrent  prediction  that 
Jerusalem,  after  wars  and  rumours  of  wars,  should  be  besieged 
and  so  utterly  destroyed  that  the  beautiful  temple  should  be 
razed  to  the  ground.  Such  anticipations  may  be  attributed  to 
superior  political  sagacity.  But  our  present  concern  is  with  the 
fact  that  Jesus  did  actually  make  such  predictions;  we  are  con- 
tent to  leave  the  question  whether  such  knowledge  was  natural 
or  supernatural.  The  image  of  "  the  abomination  of  desolation  "  ^ 
may  have  once  denoted  the  Statue  of  the  Olympian  Zeus  which 
Antiochus  Epiphanes  placed  on  the  altar  of  burnt-offerings  in 
the  temple.  The  Lord  Jesus  may  have  used  this  phrase  of 
vague  terror  once  again,  although  St.  Luke  omits  to  mention 
it.^  The  period  of  catastrophe  is  personified  as  a  travailing 
woman ;  war,  earthquakes  and  cataclysms  are  some  of  the  hor- 
rors accompanying  her  agony,  which  continues  until  the  Com- 
pletion of  the  Age  is  brought  to  birth.  But  it  is  in  harmony 
with  our  general  impression  of  Christ  to  point  out  that  such 
predictions  of  the  future  did  not  spring  from  any  motive  of 
curiosity,  but  rather  from  a  desire  to  prepare  His  followers  for 
new  forms  of  trial.  The  chief  purport  of  His  Apocalypse  was 
to  teach  a  rigorous  ethic  of  loyalty  and  watchfulness;  for,  if 
that  troubled  and  restless  age  found  His  disciples  unprepared, 
the  false  prophets  and  Messianic  pretenders  who  would  arise 
might  successfully  lead  them  astray.  Although  His  warnings 
might  sleep  in  the  ear  for  a  time,  the  direful  events  would  awaken 
and  enlighten  His  predictions. 

7.  As  we  attempt  to  grope  our  way  in  the  twilight  of  apocalyp- 
tic speech  the  thought  is  borne  upon  the  mind  that  Jesus  looked 
upon  the  Roman  War  as  the  beginning  of  the  Completion  of  the 
Age,  and  that  this  is  the  epoch  when  the  parousia  is  expected 
to  begin ; — but  the  "  end  "  is  not  yet,  "  not  immediately."  The 
gospel  of  St.  Matthew  gives  embarrassment  at  this  point  by 
assigning  the  "  sign  of  the  Son  of  Man  in  heaven  to  a  period 
immediately  (  sv^io)?  )  after  the  tribulation,"  although  in  an 
earlier  verse  ^  it  is  said,  "  this  gospel  of  the  kingdom  shall  be 
preached  in  all  the  world  for  a  witness  unto  all  nations :  and 
then  shall  the  end  come."     Unless,   therefore,  we  proceed  to 

'Dan.  xi.  31.  *Luke  xxi.   20-21.  'xxiv.  14. 


426  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

identify  the  parousia  with  Christ's  Spiritual  Presence  in  the 
world  while  the  Gospel  is  being  preached,  we  shall  hold  to  St. 
Luke's  version  that  Jesus,  having  spoken  of  wars  and  commo- 
tions and  false  Messiahs,  added  the  important  declaration,  "  but 
the  end  is  not  yet " ;  and  further,  having  described  the  struggle 
between  His  disciples  and  the  world.  He  affirmed,  "  and  Jerusa- 
lem shall  be  trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles,  until  the  times  of 
the  Gentiles  be  fulfilled."  If  this  be  the  right  exegesis,^  then 
three  things  are  clearly  foretold — first,  the  destruction  of  Jerusa- 
lem and  the  accompanying  disasters,  when  amid  the  religious 
and  political  unrest  false  Messiahs  would  arise ;  secondly,  the 
final  age,  or  times  of  the  Gentiles,  during  which  time  the  Gospel 
should  be  preached  throughout  the  world;  and,  thirdly,  the 
second  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man  in  power  and  glory — an  end 
which  should  prove  a  new  beginning.  But  we  proceed  with 
great  caution  and  hesitation,  even  in  distinguishing  these  three 
epochs  of  this  Apocalypse,  The  late  Professor  Davidson  stated, 
"  Christ  predicted  His  own  death,  from  all  we  can  gather 
plainly.  But  the  prophecy  of  the  end  in  Matt.  xxiv.  exactly 
resembles  Old  Testament  prophecy.  There  is  in  it  the  same 
involution  as  we  find  in  Joel,  for  instance,  or  in  Isa.  xl.  i-ii. 
The  near  and  the  far  are  not  separated;  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem  and  the  end  of  the  world  are  both  brought  close 
together;  just  as,  in  Isaiah,  the  release  from  Babylon  by  Cyrus 
and  the  redemption  from  sin  by  the  Messiah — the  restoration 
to  rest  in  Palestine  and  the  final  glorification  of  the  Church — are 
combined  in  one.  Hence  much  doubt  has  been  thrown  on 
Christ's  prophecy  by  New  Testament  critics,  who  allege  that  we 
do  not  possess  it  as  it  came  from  Him,  but  as  it  was  taken  up 
by  the  disciples,  and  as  it  has  passed  through  the  mould  of 
apostolic  thought.  There  is  no  ground  for  supposing  that  New 
Testament  prophecy  should  differ  from  Old.  The  similarity 
to  Old  Testament  prophecy,  however,  is  very  remarkable;  and 
as  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  it  given  to  our  Lord  in  vision, 
or  the  product  of  any  mental  excitation,  we  are  led  to  infer  that 
what  is  called  "  the  timelessness  of  prophecy,"  or  what  is  called 
otherwise  "  the  perspective  in  prophecy,"  the  close  juxtaposition 
of  things  distant  from  one  another,  when  both  were  also  distant 


*  Vide  C.  A.  Briggs,  The  Messiah  of  the  Gospels,  for  an  admirable  dis- 
cussion of  this  problem. 


The  Apocalypse  of  Jesus  427 

from  the  time  or  place  of  the  seer,  is  not  due  to  the  fact  that 
prophecies  were  given  in  vision."  ^ 

8.  Before  seeking  our  interpretation  of  this  apocalypse,  how- 
ever, it  is  wise  to  ask  how  the  idea  of  the  parousia  presented 
itself  to  the  mind  of  Jesus  Himself.  What  an  easy  escape  from 
perplexing  questions  would  be  afforded  if  we  could  treat  the 
external  "  signs  "  as  merely  the  drapery  of  great,  grand,  spiritual 
ideas,  and  so  dismiss  the  apocalyptic  expressions  as  "  the  court- 
language  of  inauguration,"  describing  simply  the  Spiritual  return 
of  the  Christ  after  the  Crucifixion!  A  favourite  expedient 
adopted  by  many  is  to  assume  that  the  apocalypse  of  Jesus  is 
purely  pictorial,  and  then  proceed  to  "  spiritualize  "  this  teaching 
by  excluding  every  statement  which  does  not  accord  with  the 
saying,  "  The  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you."  This  prevalent 
mode  of  exegesis  springs  in  part  from  a  false  delicacy  or  so-called 
spirituality,  which  resents  every  embodiment  of  ideas,  and  decries 
the  material  side  of  life  in  order  to  exalt  the  ideal.  A  world 
less  gross  than  the  one  God  has  created  would  be  needed  to 
satisfy  this  superior  order  of  minds.  The  disciples,  indeed,  may 
have  misunderstood  the  prophetic  words  of  Jesus,  and  mixed 
the  remembrance  of  them  with  fragments  of  traditional  apoca- 
lypses which  belonged  to  contemporary  Jewish  thought.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  main  ideas  of  this  apocalypse  are  not 
inherently  improbable  on  the  lips  of  Jesus.  The  chief  conception 
is  that  of  a  great  epoch-making  advent ;  and,  while  it  is  expressed 
in  magnificent  imagery  derived  from  current  apocalyptic  litera- 
ture, it  is  still  essentially  spiritual  in  its  character.  The  idea 
of  a  future  parousia  is  not  irrational,  or  something  discordant 
with  the  progressive  movement  of  the  Divine  Kingdom,  which 
in  the  earlier  Nature-parables  of  Jesus  proceeded  from  forces 
inherent  in  the  seed  and  soil.  Since  the  history  of  God's  Self- 
revelation  has  ever  been  marked  by  momentous  crises  and  meas- 
ured by  great  epochsi — beginnings  and  culminations — there  is 
nothing  incredible  in  the  belief  that  Jesus  Himself  stretched  a 
hand  through  future  years,  and  grasped  the  idea  of  His  own 
Second  Advent.  The  ancient  prophets  had  familiarized  the 
minds  of  men  with  ideas  of  a  Day  of  the  Lord — which  theophany 
would  be  heralded  by  terrible  phenomena  of  nature;  when  sun 
and  moon  would  be  darkened;  when  the  stars  would  fall,  and 

'  Professor  A.  B.  Davidson,  Old  Testament  Prophecy,  p.  Ii8. 


428  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

the  powers  that  are  in  heaven  would  be  shaken :  and  mourning, 
the  tribes  of  the  earth  would  "  see  the  Son  of  Man  coming 
in  the  clouds  with  great  power  and  glory."  ^  The  force  of  such 
prophetic  teaching  lay  in  the  fact  that  it  objectified  the  realities 
attested  by  the  universal  conscience  of  humanity.  Such  pictures 
of  external  judgement  ratified  the  inward  testimony  of  man's 
moral  nature.  Because  this  is  so,  it  does  not  surprise  us  that 
the  Gospels,  which  offer  gracious  pictures  of  the  Divine  Kingdom 
steadily  growing  as  a  field  of  corn,  or  developing  as  a  tiny 
mustard-seed  into  a  tree,  also  contain  apocalyptic  images  of  a 
grand  yet  terrible  harvest,  when  the  angels,  who  will  be  sent 
forth  as  reapers,  will  bind  the  wicked  together  and  cast  them 
into  a  destroying  fire.  Both  phases  of  teaching  were  needed  to 
express  the  Mind  of  Jesus — to  articulate  the  moral  truths  of 
His  unsullied  conscience  as  adequately  as  He  affirmed  the  evangel 
of  Divine  Grace  from  the  testimony  of  His  compassionate  heart. 
Taking  both  the  parables  and  the  apocalypse  of  Jesus  together, 
we  infer  that  He  anticipated  a  long  period  of  development  for 
the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  ultimately  a  definite  consummation. 
While  His  disciples  were  disqualified  by  a  narrow  nationalism 
from  understanding  a  world-wide  extension  of  the  Messianic 
Ideal,  Jesus  looked  forward  to  a  universal  reign,  as  the  several 
evangelists  testify.  St.  Matthew  records  that  Jesus  foretold 
that  the  tribes  of  the  earth  shall  mourn  and  see  the  coming 
of  the  Son  of  Man ;  St.  Mark  states  that  He  spoke  of  the  Son 
of  Man  gathering  His  elect  "  from  the  four  winds,  from  the 
uttermost  part  of  the  earth  to  the  uttermost  part  of  heaven"; 
while  St.  Luke  affirms  that  Jesus  declared  that  the  Gospel  shall 
be  preached  to  the  Gentiles  throughout  the  world.  Now  it  is 
just  this  interval  of  development  and  Gospel-preaching  which 
is  minimized  in  the  apocalyptic  perspective ;  the  very  greatness 
of  the  idea  that  Jesus  should  come  again  dwarfed  the  importance 
of  the  intervening  years. 

9.  But  neither  the  Son  nor  the  angels  know  the  time  of  the 
Coming  of  the  Son  of  Man ;  this  is  the  Father's  secret.^  It  is 
so  alien  to  the  imagination  of  the  Church  which  worshipped 
Jesus  as  Divine  to  suppose  that  its  Lord  could  be  ignorant  of 
aught  that  concerns  the  welfare  of  the  Kingdom,  that  we  cannot 

*  Joel  ii.  i-io;  iii.  15,  16;  Isa.  xiii.  6f. ;  xxiv.  i8f. ;  Zcch.  xii.  10-14,  etc. 

*  Mark  xiii.  32 ;  Matt.  xxiv.  36. 


The  Apocalypse  of  Jesus  429 

do  other  than  treat  this  as  His  own  authentic  confession.  As 
this  august  event  draws  near,  however,  it  will  be  announced 
by  intelligible  tokens,  even  as  the  coming  of  the  summer  is 
heralded  by  the  opening  leaves  of  the  fig-tree.  One  most  dis- 
concerting difficulty  in  this  Apocalypse,  already  alluded  to,  is 
Christ's  announcement  that  "  this  generation  shall  not  pass  away 
until  all  these  things  be  accomplished."  It  appears  to  us  an 
instance  of  that  "  timelessness  of  prophecy  "  described  by  Profes- 
sor Davidson,  that  the  Second  Coming  is  predicted  to  happen 
"immediately"  after  the  tribulation  (the  siege  of  Jerusalem), 
and  that  the  fulfilment  of  all  the  signs  is  anticipated  in  this 
generation.^  This  perplexing  assertion  ought  not  to  obscure  the 
plain  fact  that  Jesus  clearly  foretold  that  He  would  return  in 
triumph  after  the  doom  had  fallen  upon  Jerusalem.  And  since 
our  Lord's  predictions  of  the  beginning  of  the  birth-throes 
in  the  seventh  decade  were  literally  fulfilled  by  the  capture  of 
the  Holy  City  and  overthrow  of  the  temple,  we  might  at  least 
admit  that  the  hope  of  the  parousia  may  also  prove  to  be  some- 
thing more  than  an  "  unsubstantial  dream."  However  difficult  it 
may  prove  to  make  the  apocalypse  of  the  coming  of  the  Son 
of  Man  in  the  clouds  with  all  His  holy  angels,  harmonize  with 
our  preconceived  notions  of  graduated  progress  and  with  the 
spiritual  intuitions  of  the  moral  nature  of  God's  Reign,  we 
must  not,  therefore,  be  deterred  from  admitting  the  strong 
probability  that  Jesus  Himself  was  the  originator  of  the  hope 
of  the  Primitive  Church  that  He  would  come  again  in  that 
generation.  It  lies  beyond  our  present  sphere  of  duty  to  show 
the  influence  of  that  strange  hope;  but  it  may,  at  least,  be 
defined  as  one  of  marked  conserving  effect  in  holding  together 
the  infant  Society  of  Jesus  amid  the  disintegrating  forces  of  an 
antagonistic  world.  Our  present  attitude  to  the  apocalyptic 
teaching  of  our  Lord  is  to  fasten  simply  upon  the  certainty 
that  the  great  supernatural  movement  He  began,  which  has  had 
such  a  remarkable  history  in  the  past,  will  assuredly  come  to  a 
glorious  completion,  when  He  shall  sum  up  all  the  processes 
and  present  the  Kingdom  perfect  unto  His  Father.  But  apart 
from  abstract  discussions  about  the  authenticity  of  this  apoca- 
lypse, it  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  some  of  the  forms  of 
thought  adapted  to  the  age  of  Jesus'  earthly  ministry  can  hardly 
be  an  appropriate   ethic   for  a  world   since  then   so  changed. 

1  evQiug  ^  yevea  avTi). 


430  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

Some  go  even  farther,  and  exaggerate  this  inference  into  a 
dogmatic  rejection  of  all  Christ's  teaching;  He  was,  they  say, 
a  dreamer  of  dreams,  and  His  idyllic  simplicity  forms  no  example 
for  us,  while  His  doctrines  prove  inapplicable  to  the  complexities 
of  our  new  science  and  our  economic  and  social  problems.  But 
to  this  extreme  position  we  answer  that  Jesus  got  down  to  the 
real  foundations  of  life,  and  treated  only  of  what  was  essential 
and  permanent  in  humanity.  Had  He  taught  science  or  eco- 
nomics. His  words  might,  indeed,  have  proved  perishable ;  but 
He  enunciated  the  truths  of  man's  spiritual  relationship  which 
abide  for  aye.  Even  the  ethics  of  His  Apocalypse  have  an 
applicability  to  all  lives  that  are  bounded  by  the  uncertainties 
of  experience.  Through  all  apocalyptic  obscurities,  we  discern 
clearly  the  beginning  of  a  Kingdom  of  Righteousness,  of  peace 
and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost;  we  also  see  certain  fixed  points  in 
this  great  process,  such  as  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  the  preaching 
to  the  Gentiles,  and  the  final  consummation  when  the  Son  of 
Man  shall  come  again.  Let  us  learn  of  St.  Paul.  He  began 
by  laying  stress  upon  the  apocalyptic  eschatology  of  the  King- 
dom; but,  as  the  years  passed  by  and  time  corrected  His  mis- 
taken anticipations,  He  dwelt  ever  more  fully  on  the  ethical 
realities  and  spiritual  certainties  of  that  mighty  movement  which 
began  with  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  For  ourselves,  since  Jesus  said 
He  will  come  again  at  the  end  of  the  present  "  world,"  we  are 
constrained  to  believe  that  He  will  realize  His  own  prophecy, 
although  we  know  not  how  He  will  come.  But  whether  we 
accept  or  reject  the  apocalypse,  we  may  learn  the  lesson  of 
vigilance  and  prayer :  "  Take  ye  heed,  watch  and  pray :  for  ye 
know  not  when  the  time  is.  It  is  as  when  a  man  going  abroad 
has  left  his  house,  after  giving  authority  to  his  slaves,  to  each 
his  work,  and  has  commanded  the  doorkeeper  to  watch.  Watch, 
then;  for  you  know  not  when  the  owner  of  the  house  is  coming: 
at  evening,  or  at  midnight,  or  at  cockcrow,  or  in  the  morning, 
lest  he  come  suddenly  and  find  you  sleeping.  And  what  I  say 
to  you,  I  say  to  all,  watch." 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  LAST  SUPPER 

T.  While  in  the  foregoing  discussions  we  have  found  many 
difficulties  which  no  honest  student  dares  to  overlook,  we  shall 
now  be  led  to  acknowledge  that  nowhere  do  the  discrepancies 
appear  so  insurmountably  difficult  as  in  the  narratives  of  the 
Passion.  Here  we  feel  as  men  standing  on  some  beach  when 
the  sea  is  caught  in  a  stormy  tumult,  striving  to  peer  through  a 
dark,  driving  mist,  and  finding  their  vision  dimmed,  blurred 
and  broken.  Yet  it  may  be  said  in  anticipation,  when  we  turn 
our  scrutiny  upon  the  main  and  ultimate  fact  of  the  Crucifixion 
we  enter  the  realm  of  clearest,  historic  certitude.  There  is, 
indeed,  a  school  of  writers  who  trace  this  part  of  the  Gospels 
to  an  origination  of  the  sun-myth ;  and  since  it  is  not  wise  to 
seem  altogether  scornful  of  this  phase  of  modern  scepticism,  we 
may  quote  from  Dupuis,  who  will  serve  as  a  type  of  those 
who  criticize  Christianity  from  the  standpoint  of  solar  mythology. 
"Who  is  to  redeem  us  from  winter?  The  god  of  Spring,  or 
the  Sun,  when  it  enters  the  constellation  Aries,  the  Ram,  that  is 
the  Lamb  of  God,  who  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world.  .  .  . 
The  god  of  Day  is  the  offspring  of  the  winter  solstice,  born 
at  the  moment,  on  25  December,  when  the  day  begins  sensibly 
to  wax.  Mithras  and  Christ  are  born  on  the  same  day,  the 
Sun's  birthday:  Mithras  in  a  grotto,  Bacchus  and  Jupiter  in  a 
cave,  and  Christ  in  a  stable,  or,  according  to  some  apocryphal 
Gospels,  in  a  cave.  The  magi,  priests  of  the  Sun,  worship  the 
Saviour;  a  star,  Astronomy  being  their  science,  acquaints  them 
of  the  birth  of  the  god;  and  this  God,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
rests  in  the  arms  of  the  .Heavenly  Virgin  (Virgo  Ccelestis  of 
pagan  cults),  whose  constellation  rises  on  25  December.  Here 
the  young  God  is  combined  with  her:  thus  she  bears  him, 
remaining  a  virgin.  The  vernal  equinox  is  the  time  when 
Christ  triumphs  and  repairs  what  men  have  suffered  by  winter. 
The  Easter  feast  is  therefore  called,  among  Jews  and  Christians, 
the  feast  of  the  Passover;  for  in  the  sign  of  the  Ram,  the  rule 

431 


432  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

passes  from  the  god  of  Darkness  to  the  god  of  Light,  and  the 
star  of  Light,  restoring  life  to  Nature,  reappears  in  our  hemi- 
sphere. The  spring  feast,  Easter,  fell  originally  on  25  March. 
On  the  23d  Christ  died,  and  on  the  25th  rose  again.  This 
death  and  this  resurrection  recur  in  all  solar  myths."  ^  The 
best  answer  to  this  interesting  hypothesis  is,  perhaps,  to  quote 
Tacitus,  who,  incidentally  confusing  Jews  and  Christians,  tells 
us  definitely  that  Christ  "  was  put  to  death  in  the  reign  of 
Tiberius  by  Pontiu*  Pilate  the  procurator,  and  that  his  religion, 
a  deadly  superstition  (the  Christians  being  characterized  by  their 
hatred  of  the  human  race),  though  crushed  for  a  time,  burst 
forth  again,  not  only  throughout  Judaea,  in  which  it  arose,  but 
even  in  Rome  itself,  the  common  sink  of  all  infamy  and  wicked- 
ness." ^  The  fact  of  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ  has  such  corrobo- 
ration that  doubt  of  its  historicity  evinces  only  the  eccentricity 
of  the  sceptic's  judgement.  And  notwithstanding  the  many  diffi- 
culties belonging  to  the  New  Testament  narratives  of  the  Pas- 
sion, this  fact  stands  out  like  some  rocky  promontory  which 
refuses  to  be  hidden  or  destroyed  by  the  waves  that  dash  against 
its  base. 

2.  Having  reassured  the  mind  by  directing  its  attention  upon 
what  may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  historic  certitudes  of  Chris- 
tianity, we  shall  now  turn  to  the  task  of  weaving  into  one 
whole  the  various  testimonies  of  the  several  evangelists,  holding 
the  result  to  be  simply  tentative  and  corrigible  by  any  subsequent 
gain  of  new  light.  Hitherto  we  have  treated  the  Marcan  tradi- 
tion as  the  backbone  of  Evangelic  History,  distributing  the 
logia  and  incidents  contributed  by  the  later  writers  as  harmoni- 
ously as  possible  into  that  early  framework  of  the  narrative  of 
Christ's  Ministry.  But  when  we  come  to  the  Passion,  we  are 
forced  to  admit  the  authority  of  St.  Luke,  who  at  this  point 
treats  the  earlier  gospel  with  considerable  freedom.  This  Evan- 
gelist must  have  profited,  both  intellectually  and  spiritually,  by 
his  companionship  with  St.  Paul,  and  from  that  Apostle's  teach- 
ing his  mind  was  first  directed  upon  the  Death  of  Jesus  as  the 
main  act  of  a  redeeming  sacrifice :  hence,  he  would  spare  no 
pains  in  investigating  the  unique  and   momentous  occurrences 

*  Dupuis,  "  Origine  de  tous  les  Cultes,"  quoted  by  Ernest  Crawley  in 
The  Tree  of  Life,    Vide  The  Four  Gospels  as  Historical  Records,  p.  492ff. 

*  Annals,  xv.  44. 


The  Last  Supper  433 

that  culminated  In  the  Cross.  The  Fourth  Gospel  also,  in  spite 
of  many  surprising  omissions,  renders  most  important  aid  to 
all  who  aim  at  reconstructing  some  mental  images  of  the  con- 
cluding scenes  of  the  Ministry  of  Jesus.  The  author's  aim  was 
not  primarily  to  give  a  chronicle  of  the  incidents;  and  yet  so 
familiar  was  he  with  the  minutest  details  of  time  and  place, 
that  he  never  hesitated  to  modify  various  mistaken  suppositions 
found  in  earlier  traditions.  Our  method  is  not  that  of  first 
setting  forth  all  the  inconsistent  details  of  the  four  narratives,  and 
then  rashly  inferring  that  it  is  now  impossible  to  gain  any 
approximation  to  certitude;  but  it  is  to  use  once  again  our  im- 
pressionist plan  of  reading  all  the  Passion-narratives — taking  St. 
Luke's  as  our  starting-point,  observing  all  the  discrepancies 
between  this  and  others — and  then,  having  allowed  our  minds 
to  receive  the  composite  impression,  seek  to  reproduce  the  picture 
which  has  focused  itself  upon  the  retina  of  our  minds. 

3.  As  a  result  of  this  method  of  investigation,  we  conclude 
that  at  last  the  Sanhedrim  had  resolved  to  execute  its  long- 
cherished  purpose  of  putting  Jesus  to  death;  although  they  had 
consented  among  themselves  to  endure  Him  yet  a  few  more  days, 
since  any  commotion  at  the  Passover  might  give  the  Romans 
another  opportunity  for  armed  interference,  such  as  would  further 
menace  national  existence.  It  was  in  this  brief  interval  of 
suspense,  in  the  long  duel  between  Jesus  and  the  Jewish  clergy, 
that  Judas  stepped  out  of  the  obscurity  of  discipleship  into  a 
dreadful  prominence  as  the  self-elected  traitor.  According  to 
St.  John's  view,  there  was  no  alleviation  of  Judas's  guilt  by 
attributing  it  to  sudden  temptation ;  rather  was  it  due  to  a  gradual 
degeneration  of  character,  his  fidelity  to  Jesus  having  been 
shaken  from  the  time  of  the  apostasy  of  the  political  Messian- 
ists  in  Galilee.  An  exposure  of  this  man's  sordid  meanness  had 
been  made  at  the  anointing  of  the  Master  at  Bethany,  when  our 
Lord's  vindication  of  Mary's  act  had  made  it  plain  to  him  that 
such  a  Leader  could  never  be  the  political  Messiah  he  had  hoped 
for.  Then  it  was  that  for  this  man's  mind  the  die  was  cast, 
and  he  resolved  to  secure  himself  from  sharing  in  the  miserable 
failure  of  Jesus,  and  even  to  make  some  profit  out  of  it  by 
treachery.  St.  John  affirms  that  Judas  had  acted  as  treasurer 
of  the  disciple-band,  and  had  been  guilty  of  petty  peculations, 
which  fostered  an  ignoble  greed  that  issued  in  an  infamous  act 


434  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

of  betrayal.  When  they  were  in  doubt  as  to  the  best  time  and 
method  of  arresting  Jesus,  this  disciple  sought  an  interview  with 
some  of  the  members  of  the  hierarchy,  and  broached  to  them  his 
own  dark  scheme  and  its  conditions.  While  the  accounts  we 
have  of  Judas's  transaction  and  subsequent  fate  are  very  in- 
harmonious, they  cannot  but  leave  the  impression  of  the  his- 
toricity of  the  betrayal.  The  suggestion  has  been  thrown  out 
that  the  mere  remembrance  of  Zechariah's  obscure  prophecy  may 
have  been  the  real  germ  of  the  story;  but  it  is  hardly  credible 
that  a  wholly  fictitious  narrative  should  have  been  invented,  or 
that  a  legend  so  definite  as  this  Judas  narrative  could  have 
sprung  from  such  an  oracle;  rather  must  it  have  been  the  fact 
itself  that  evoked  the  memory  of  the  prophecy. .  It  is  not  within 
the  scope  of  our  purpose  to  dwell  further  on  the  character  of 
the  traitor;  Dante's  estimate  of  the  turpitude  of  his  crime — 
placing  the  guilty  man  in  the  lowest  depths  of  the  Inferno — is 
probably  a  truer  expression  of  the  horror  of  his  deed  felt  by 
the  unsophisticated  conscience  than  the  modern  attempts  to 
explain  away  his  guilt. 

4.  As  we  consider  the  steps  leading  to  the  Last  Supper,  we 
marvel  at  the  disciples'  lack  of  suspicion  concerning  Judas ;  the 
very  suggestion  of  treachery  came  to  them  only  a  few  hours 
before  the  betrayal  with  a  shock  of  surprise.  But  Jesus  had 
divined  his  falsity,  and  it  may  have  been  a  wish  to  avoid  any 
premature  arrest  which  prompted  Him  to  keep  Judas  and  the 
other  disciples  in  ignorance  of  the  place  where  He  intended  to 
sup  with  them :  hence.  He  gave  the  obscure  commission  to  two 
of  them  to  go  and  make  provision.  Such  caution  shows  the 
insecurity  of  His  feeling;  and,  although  He  had  come  back  to 
lay  down  His  life,  He  took  every  precaution  against  an  abortive 
ending  of  His  ministry.  He  felt  an  urgent  desire  to  complete, 
as  far  as  He  could,  His  instruction  of  the  Twelve  before  the  end 
came.  Supposing  the  great  controversy  with  the  leaders  of  the 
national  religion  to  have  taken  place  on  a  Wednesday — at  the 
close  of  which  day  "  He  departed  and  hid  Himself  from  them  " — 
then  the  Thursday  was  probably  spent  in  some  retreat  not  far 
from  the  city.  Considerable  talent  and  erudite  research  have 
been  exercised  to  explain  the  discrepancy  between  the  Synoptists 
and  St.  John  concerning  this  Supper.  St.  Mark  states  that  the 
disciples  were  sent  to  prepare,  "  on  the  first  day  of  unleavened 


The  Last  Supper  435 

bread,  when  they  sacrificed  the  Passover  " ;  but  in  narrating  the 
incidents  of  the  subsequent  trial,  the  fourth  evangeHst  tells  us 
that  the  Jews  refrained  from  entering  the  Judgement  hall  when 
Jesus  was  tried  by  Pilate,  desiring  to  avoid  a  defilement  which 
would  hinder  them  from  participating  in  the  Passover  meal. 
The  ancient  law  fixed  the  date  of  the  Passover  for  the  fourteenth 
of  the  first  month  between  the  evenings.^  The  Hebrew  mode  of 
reckoning  the  day  was  from  sunset  to  sunset,  so  that  their 
Friday  would  begin  on  the  evening  of  our  Thursday.  Now,  on 
the  holy  day  of  the  Passover,  no  business  would  be  transacted 
and  manual  labour  would  cease.  St.  Mark,  however,  relates  that 
when  Judas  was  expelled  from  the  Last  Supper,  the  other  dis- 
ciples imagined  that  he  was  sent  out  to  make  further  purchases. 
Yet  again,  on  the  morning  of  the  Crucifixion,  when  Jesus  fell 
under  the  weight  of  the  Cross,  Simon  the  Cyrenian  was  en- 
countered returning  from  work  in  the  fields.  We  infer  from 
these  circumstances  that  Jesus  may  have  availed  Himself  of  a 
customary  permission — granted  probably  to  relieve  the  over- 
crowded city  at  such  feasts — to  anticipate  the  festal  memorial 
of  God's  deliverance  of  Israel  from  bondage.  If  then  we  adopt 
the  Johannine  date  (Nisan  14)  rather  than  the  Synoptic  (Nisan 
15),  we  must  suppose  that  the  Last  Supper  took  place  before 
the  Paschal  lambs  were  slain — a  detail  that  would  surely  play  a 
significant  part  in  subsequent  apostolic  reflection  which  made 
Jesus  the  true  Paschal  Lamb.  But  while  accepting  St.  John's 
statement  as  to  the  time,  we  may  adhere  to  the  Lucan  account 
of  the  two  "  cups,"  inferring  that  the  usual  order  of  the  Pascha 
was  followed,  and  identifying  the  "  thanks  "  of  Jesus  with  the 
Jewish  formula,  "  Blessed  art  Thou,  O  Lord  our  God,  who 
hast  created  this  fruit  of  the  vine."  The  adequate  treatment 
of  this  perplexing  discrepancy  might  well  be  dealt  with  in  a 
volume  devoted  exclusively  to  the  elucidation  of  so  great  a 
diflficulty;  we  only  refer,  in  passing,  to  a  puzzle  which  taxes 
the  learning  of  our  greatest  scholars,  in  order  that  we  may  give 
some  perspective  to  the  central  Figure  which  has  so  absorbingiy 
engaged  our  attention.  Our  own  meagre  allusions  to  these 
intricate  discussions  do  but  suggest  that  one  may  look  upon 
"  the  Lord's  Supper  "  as  an  addendum  to  the  Paschal  meal  made 
by  Jesus  before  the  disciples  sang  a  part  of  the  great  Hallel. 

*  Ex.  xii.  2 ;  Lev.  xxiii.  5 ;  Num.  xxviii.  i6f . 


436  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

5.  A  further  word  needs  to  be  spoken  about  certain  anomalies 
and  discrepancies  in  the  several  accounts  of  that  evening.  St. 
Luke,  for  example,  records  the  renewed  rivalry  and  dispute 
among  the  disciples,  but  omits  the  exquisite  story  of  our  Lord's 
symbolic  rebuke  in  washing  their  feet.  As  we  study  and  com- 
pare St.  John's  gospel  with  the  Synoptics,  we  are  struck  by 
a  kind  of  duality  or  reduplication  of  similar  incidents  with 
marked  differences :  so  that  the  question  is  forced  upon  our  atten- 
tion, whether  these  are  not  alternative  and  mutually  exclusive 
accounts.  Instead  of  an  account  of  the  Caesarean  crisis  and 
Petrine  confession,  St.  John  relates  the  Galilean  apostasy  and 
the  proved  loyalty  of  the  disciples;  the  Synoptics  give  us  the 
institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper  at  the  Pascha;  but  St.  John 
relates  earlier  Christ's  discourse  on  the  bread  which  came  down 
from  Heaven.  Instead  of  the  agony  of  Gethsemane,  the  fourth 
evangelist  relates  how,  when  the  Greeks  sought  Him,  Jesus 
passed  through  a  mental  conflict  and  was  comforted  not  by 
angels,  but  by  a  Heavenly  voice.  We  believe  that  this  striking 
reduplication  of  similar  yet  differing  incidents  arose  from  the 
wealth  of  tradition  and  reminiscence  from  which  the  several 
writers  chose  their  materials  to  illustrate  their  respective  aims. 
No  little  part  of  modern  criticism  seems  based  on  the  assumption 
that,  if  such  reduplication  does  not  show  the  unreliability  of 
the  several  sources,  at  least  it  makes  it  necessary  to  treat  the 
two  series  of  resembling  incidents  as  alternatives,  so  that  if 
one  be  chosen  as  probable  the  other  must  be  excluded.  But  this 
is  not  the  sole  solution ;  it  is  surely  feasible  that  St.  John's 
account  is  supplementary.  In  treating  of  the  Passion-week, 
therefore,  we  shall  assume  the  honest  intent  of  the  narrators, 
and,  having  made  a  conflation  of  the  various  lines  of  tradition, 
we  shall  let  them  make  their  composite  reflection  in  our  minds, 
exercising  judgement  in  constructing  a  probable  comprehensive 
imagination  of  the  order  of  events  and  their  significance. 

6.  It  is  possible  that  the  earlier  part  of  Thursday  may  have 
been  spent  by  Jesus  on  the  slopes  of  Olivet.  Some  time  during 
the  morning  He  sent  two  of  His  disciples  into  the  city,  directing 
them  simply  to  follow  a  man  whom  they  would  see  bearing 
a  pitcher.  It  almost  appears  as  though  Jesus  had  previously 
arranged  with  some  friend  who  remains  unnamed  that  at  a 
given  message  he  should  get  ready  the  guest-hall  for  Him  and 


The  Last  Supper  437 

His  disciples.  Although  offering  this  natural  suggestion,  we 
do  not  shut  out  all  supposition  that,  in  this  instance  and  in  many 
others,  the  Master  may  have  foreseen  what  would  occur  by 
clairvoyance.  Our  method  is  rather  to  find  an  explanation  along 
normal  lines  wherever  possible,  holding  in  view  the  possibility 
that  many  of  these  incidents  may  have  been  due  to  the  use  of 
supernormal  powers  in  Jesus.  The  two  disciples  carried  out 
their  commission,  followed  the  water-carrier  to  a  certain  house, 
and  announced  to  the  tenant  that  their  Master's  time  was  near. 
Thus,  it  fell  out  that  none  of  the  disciples,  not  even  Judas,  had 
discovered  where  Jesus  intended  to  celebrate  the  feast  until  they 
arrived  at  the  house.  At  eventide  they  reached  the  place  as- 
signed for  their  use,  finding  a  large  upper  room  furnished  with 
couches  and  prepared  for  the  meal.  As  we  have  intimated  in 
the  previous  paragraph,  St.  Luke  somewhat  disconcerts  his 
readers  by  placing  an  account  of  a  contention  that  sprang  up 
among  the  disciples  immediately  after  the  institution  of  the 
Sacrament.  Harmony  is  brought  into  the  narrative  by  a  slight 
transposition,  and  by  treating  the  incident  as  a  genuine  reminis- 
cence of  a  dispute  about  precedence  which  occurred  at  the 
beginning  of  the  evening.  A  quarrel  as  to  which  of  them  was 
looked  up  to  as  the  greatest  would  account  also  for  the  foot- 
washing  incident;  the  rankling  of  distrust  and  jealousy  made 
each  disciple  unwilling  to  take  the  posture  of  a  servant  after 
their  dusty  walk.  Seeing  their  mutual  irritation,  Jesus  girded 
Himself  with  a  towel,  and  taking  a  ewer  of  water,  began  to 
wash  the  disciples'  feet.  Whether  He  began  with  Judas  or  with 
John  is  not  told ;  indeed,  astonishment  might  well  confuse  the 
Evangelist's  treasured  memory  of  the  incident:  some  of  those 
who  shared  in  that  scene  would  never  cease  to  wonder,  and 
perhaps  to  weep,  at  every  renewed  recollection  of  it  in  after 
years.  St.  John  relates  how  Simon  impetuously  refused  at  first 
to  allow  His  Lord  to  wash  his  feet,  feeling  ashamed,  no  doubt, 
that  their  foolish  rivalries  had  occasioned  such  humiliation  for 
Him.  In  reply,  Jesus  carried  all  their  thoughts  beyond  the 
mere  outward  act  to  the  discipline  of  the  spirit  which  they 
needed.  With  the  baptism  of  repentance  they  had  been  washed 
once;  now  He  would  fain  cleanse,  not  only  the  stains  of  travel 
from  their  feet,  but  also  from  their  minds  the  soiled  marks  of 
anger,  rivalry  and  pride.  The  Evangelist,  who  recorded  the  in- 
cident so  many  years  after,  prefaces  it  by  the  mysterious  saying 


438  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

that  a  motive  for  this  acted  parable  was  that  Jesus  knew 
"  that  the  Father  had  given  all  things  into  His  hands,  and  that 
He  came  forth  from  God,  and  goeth  unto  God."  The  lowly 
act  of  Jesus  was  framed  in  profoundest  mysticism ;  the  washing 
of  the  disciples'  feet  was  another  step  in  that  marvellous  humilia- 
tion which,  when  viewed  in  the  light  of  Eternity,  appeared  as  a 
stately  movement  in  the  solemn  drama  of  the  Revelation  of 
God's  Son.  It  was  the  rebuke  of  all  worldliness,  expressed  in 
an  action  of  humility  and  love. 

"  You  call  Me  Teacher  and  Lord, 
And  you  say  rightly;  for  so  I  am. 

If  I,  the  Lord  and  Teacher,  then,  have  washed  your  feet, 
You  also  are  bound  to  wash  the  feet  of  one  another. 
For  I  have  given  you  an  example, 
That  you  also  should  do  even  as  I  have  done  to  you. 
Truly,  I  tell  you,  truly, 
A  slave  is  not  greater  than  his  owner, 
Nor  is  a  Messenger  greater  than  he  who  sent  him." 

7.  Some  general  conception  of  the  nature  and  course  of  the 
Jewish  Passover-meal  has  been  made  familiar  by  the  repeated 
accounts  of  distinguished  scholars;  and  it  is  neither  in  our 
power  nor  purpose  to  add  to,  or  modify,  such  knowledge.  Our 
more  modest  aim  is  to  gain  a  mental  synthesis  of  the  scene  as 
a  background  for  the  action  and  converse  of  our  Lord  with 
His  disciples;  to  catch,  if  possible,  reflections  of  His  changing 
moods  with  the  trend  and  significance  of  His  thoughts.  With 
a  single  exception  those  followers  reciprocated  their  Master's 
afifection,  and  persisted  in  faithful  attachment  to  Him  throughout 
His  temptations.  While  all  of  them  had  felt  the  powerful 
attractions  of  the  political  Messianism  of  the  age,  Judas  alone 
had  been  seduced  into  detachment  and  treachery.  After  Jesus 
had  washed  their  feet.  He  took  His  place  at  the  head  of  the 
table,  seating  Himself  between  John  and  Judas.  His  Mind 
was  full  of  the  presentiment  that  the  hour  had  come  for  Him 
to  return  to  His  Father,  and  He  talked  with  those  around  Him 
of  His  own  departure  and  their  mission.  Through  all  His  pre- 
occupation, there  shone  the  clear  light  of  love  for  His  disciples. 
"  Love  .  .  .  bears  it  out  even  to  the  edge  of  doom."  ^  Although 
under  no  illusion  concerning  the  immediate  future,  Jesus  claims 
to  exercise  a  kingly  prerogative,  distributing  among  the  Twelve 
the  mediatorial  offices  of  the  Kingdom  which  His  Father  had 
•  Shakspere,  Sonnet  cxvL,  quoted  by  Dr.  Dods,  Expos.  Gk.  N.  T.,  in  loco. 


The  Last  Supper  439 

appointed  for  Him.  Thus  He  used  His  Jewish  culture  to  take 
up  the  theocratic  ideal  as  something  realized  in  and  through 
the  spiritual  Ministry  of  Grace  and  Truth  which  He  delegates 
to  His  disciples  on  the  eve  of  His  foreseen  Passion.  St.  John 
corroborates,  in  His  own  characteristic  manner,  the  evidence 
of  the  Synoptists  concerning  the  vice-regal  duties  of  the  apos- 
tolate.  "  Truly,  truly,  I  say  unto  you,  he  that  receiveth  whom- 
soever I  send  receiveth  Me;  and  he  that  receiveth  Me  receiveth 
Him  that  sent  Me." 

8.  But  a  sad  dissonance  entered  into  the  Master's  discourse, 
for  He  was  sensitive  to  the  alien  and  treacherous  intents  of 
Judas.  Jesus  read  that  disciple's  mind,  and  perceived  that  the 
man  had  fallen  a  prey  to  a  Spirit  of  Satanic  malignancy.  He 
had  already  entered  into  collusion  with  the  enemies  of  Jesus, 
and  was  even  at  that  very  moment  revolving  the  possibilities 
of  betraying  his  Lord.  The  clear  divination  of  these  hostile 
intrigues  burdened  His  speech  with  the  presage  and  presentiment 
of  coming  doom,  and  at  length  His  perturbation  of  mind  culmi- 
nated in  the  announcement,  before  all,  that  one  of  them  was 
about  to  betray  Him.  Such  a  prediction  must  have  been  per- 
vaded by  a  spirit  of  appeal,  even  though  Jesus  foresaw  the  re- 
lentlessness  of  the  man  by  His  side.  Perceiving  the  immovability 
of  Judas's  dark  design,  the  only  alternative  that  remained  was 
to  expel  him  from  the  group,  although  this  had  to  be  done  with- 
out exposing  him  to  the  anger  and  alarm  of  the  others.  All 
present  were  filled  with  consternation  at  our  Lord's  obscure  but 
unmistakable  announcement  of  betrayal,  and  severally  asked,  "  Is 
it  I  ? "  Then  when,  at  Simon's  suggestion,  John  asked  who 
the  traitor  should  be,  Jesus  gave  a  token,  which,  whether  com- 
prehended by  the  inquirer  or  not,  was  plain  to  Judas  himself. 
What  dark  thoughts  were  passing  in  the  traitor's  mind  are  un- 
revealed — fear,  perhaps  mingled  with  scorn ;  but  there  was  no 
will  to  repent ;  and  Jesus  leant  toward  him  and  said,  "  What  thou 
doest,  do  quickly."  The  others  appear  to  have  imagined  that 
their  Master  was  commissioning  the  treasurer  of  their  band  to 
go  out  and  complete  the  requisite  purchases  for  the  morrow. 
But  the  command  reads  to  us  as  the  cry  of  outraged  Love. 
The  wretched  man  stood  unmasked,  and  before  John  or  Simon 
could  interrupt,  even  had  they  wished,  he  passed  out  into  the 
night. 


440  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

9.  Judas's  withdrawal  gave  relief  to  the  sense  of  gloom 
which  had  oppressed  them  all,  and  a  feeling  of  harmony  was 
renewed.  In  the  moment  of  relaxation  from  a  tension  which 
the  Master  Himself  had  shared  in,  He  explained  to  His  disciples 
why  He  had  availed  Himself  of  the  permissive  custom  of 
anticipating  the  Pascha:  it  was  because  He  foresaw  that  He 
will  not  have  another  opportunity  of  eating  it  with  them,  or  of 
supping  with  them  again  until  He  sits  down  with  them  in  a 
spiritual  manner  in  a  kingdom  established  by  His  own  Cruci- 
fixion. On  previous  occasions  it  appears  that  Jesus  had  used 
the  time  of  the  "  breaking  of  bread  "  for  speaking  freely  of  His 
Mission;  but  at  this  juncture  the  familiar  meal  becomes  a  sacra- 
ment of  spiritual  fellowship,  and  by  an  acted  parable  and  solemn 
words  He  showed  them  the  meanings  of  His  death.  It  is  difficult 
for  us  to  understand  the  naturalness  of  the  succeeding  steps  in 
that  Memorable  Supper,  since  we  are  inevitably  influenced  by 
the  medium  of  ecclesiastical  developments  both  of  doctrine  and 
ceremony.  The  institution  of  the  sacrament  is  often  thought 
of  as  taking  place  when  Supper  was  ended;  but  if  we  accept 
the  Lucan  narrative  of  the  blessing  of  two  cups,  then  we  shall 
be  inclined  to  think  of  the  whole  of  that  Paschal  meal  as  assum- 
ing a  sacramental  character.  It  will,  perhaps,  clarify  our 
thoughts  of  the  order  of  that  meal  if  we  quote  Dr.  Alex.  R. 
Eager's  summary  of  his  convincing  note  on  St.  Luke's  account. 
"  (i)  The  disputed  passage  in  St.  Luke  shows  every  mark, 
external  and  internal,  of  authenticity.  (2)  Its  admission  makes 
it  necessary  to  believe  that  St.  Luke  speaks  of  the  Consecration 
of  two  cups  at  the  Last  Supper.  (3)  St.  Luke  joins  the  declara- 
tion, and  the  words  of  blessing  of  the  first  cup  with  a  similar 
declaration  of  our  Lord's  as  to  the  whole  feast.  (4)  There  is 
no  doubt  whatever  as  to  the  order  in  which  our  Lord  consecrated 
the  loaf  and  the  eucharistic  cup.  (5)  The  first  cup  preceded 
the  feast,  and  was  not  eucharistic.  (6)  St.  Paul's  account 
implies  the  use  of  a  cup  before  the  eucharistic  chalice;  his 
omission  of  any  reference  to  that  cup  is  absolutely  intelligible. 
(7)  So,  too,  the  omission  of  any  similar  direct  reference,  in  St. 
Matthew  and  St.  Mark,  is  intelligible;  but  both  have  an  indirect 
reference,  though  misplaced.  (8)  By  replacing  their  reference 
in  its  proper  order,  the  whole  account,  derived  from  its  four 
sources,  is  intelligible  and  self-consistent,  and  reveals  the  Scrip- 
tural truth  of  the  tradition  that  is  embodied  in  the  order  of 


The  Last  Supper  441 

consecration  and  administration  now  used  through  all  Christen- 
dom." 1 

ID.  Our  earliest  account  of  the  Lord's  Supper  is  that  which 
St.  Paul  wrote  to  the  Corinthians  some  time  between  50  and 
55  A.D.  Although  the  writing  down  of  this  ^account  was  delayed 
for  more  than  twenty  years,  the  Apostle  may  have  received  the 
tradition  within  a  few  months  of  the  Crucifixion.  The  term 
"  revelation,"  by  which  he  describes  it,  applies  less  to  the  manner 
of  its  communication  than  to  the  nature  of  his  insight  into  its 
meaning.  Hence,  it  may  be  that  our  Pauline  account  is  only 
another  version  of  the  Petrine  tradition  which  St.  Mark  has 
embodied  in  his  gospel.  While  we  accept  the  fidelity  of  the 
Lucan  narrative  as  to  the  actual  fact  of  the  two  cups,  we  may 
omit  further  allusion  to  the  first  cup,  as  it  was  not  eucharistic, 
and  proceed  to  make  our  inferences  from  the  four  sources  at 
our  disposal.  Before  the  Supper  ended  Jesus  took  bread,  and 
having  given  thanks  broke  it,  and  gave  it  to  His  disciples  with 
the  words,  "  This  is  My  body  for  you  " ;  likewise  the  cup  after 
they  had  supped,  saying :  "  This  cup  is  the  new  covenant  in 
My  blood."  St.  Paul  states  that  after  giving  the  bread,  our 
Lord  enjoined  upon  His  disciples,  "  Do  this  in  memory  of  Me  " ; 
and  after  the  cup,  "  Do  this  as  often  as  you  drink  it,  in  memory 
of  Me."  The  Marcan  version  is  simpler :  "  Take  it,  this  is  My 
body  " :  "  This  is  My  blood  of  the  covenant  which  is  poured  out 
for  many  " ;  and  in  this  account  we  find  no  command  to  repeat 
the  act.  In  St.  Matthew,  Jesus  is  represented  as  declaring  the 
cup  "  is  My  blood  of  the  covenant  shed  in  reference  to  many  in 
order  to  remission  of  sins."  The  Lucan  account  formally  records 
the  command  to  repeat  the  sacrament,  "  Do  this  for  a  recollec- 
tion of  Me."  Some  have  conjectured  that  this  imperative  pre- 
serves the  Church's  subsequent  interpretation  of  the  sacrament 
as  a  permanent  institution,  since  Jesus  probably  designed  no 
literal  repetition  of  this  rite  any  more  than  He  desired  a  literal 
imitation  of  the  washing  of  the  feet.  Dr.  Briggs,  however,  sug- 
gests that  this  command  was  a  post-Resurrection  word  of  Jesus ; 
but  there  is  too  little  evidence  wherewith  to  verify  this  hypothesis. 
The  question  springs  to  our  minds,  however.  Does  not  the  ex- 
alted self-consciousness  we  find  in  Jesus  in  these  last  days  make 

^St.  Luke's  Account  of  the  Last  Supper:  a  Critical  Note  (Expositor, 
March  and  April,  1908.) 


442  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

it  inherently  probable  that  He  actually  intended  to  establish  a 
permanent  institution?  Should  the  command  to  repeat  the  new 
Pascha  be  accepted  as  authentic,  still  we  must  not  transform  the 
simple  "do  this" — "perform  this" — into  a  sacrificial  injunction 
to  "  oflfer  this  " :  it  is  to  be  a  repetition  of  communion,  of  com- 
memoration, but  not  of  priestly  sacrifice.  Amid  all  the  fluctuat- 
ing elements  of  the  fourfold  record,  two  incidents  are  common 
alike  in  all :  first,  the  giving  of  the  broken  bread  after  thanks 
had  been  uttered  and  the  declaration  had  been  made,  "  this  is 
My  body  " ;  secondly,  the  passing  of  the  cup  with  the  assertion 
that  it  was  the  blood  of  the  (new)  Covenant  shed  on  behalf  of 
many — or,  for  His  disciples. 

II.  Even  in  the  most  cursory  review  of  the  great  subject  of 
our  Lord's  institution  of  this  sacrament,  it  is  a  matter  of  felicita- 
tion to  the  whole  Church  that  the  Didache  can  be  relied  upon 
to  reflect  the  primitive  mind  of  the  Christian  Societies.  This 
book  was  one  of  the  first  manuals  of  Christian  praxis  treating 
of  morality,  worship,  organization  and  the  Second  Coming.  If 
it  be  admitted  that  the  Teaching  "  represents  the  low-water  mark 
of  Christian  feeling  and  speculation,"  then  we  argue  from  this 
that  the  very  poverty  of  its  thought  but  makes  it  a  more  trust- 
worthy mirror  of  the  conduct  of  the  Church.  Now,  under  the 
head  of  "  Christian  Worship,"  it  is  taught  that  the  Eucharist  was 
a  part  of  a  social-religious  meal,  and  we  learn  that  communicants 
were  accustomed  to  eat  till  they  were  satisfied.  "  As  regards 
the  Eucharist,  celebrate  it  thus:  First,  for  the  cup:  We  thank 
Thee,  O  Father,  for  the  Holy  Vine  of  David,  Thy  servant,  which 
Thou  madest  known  to  us  by  Jesus,  Thy  Servant.  To  Thee  be 
glory  for  ever!  And  for  this  broken  bread:  We  thank  Thee, 
our  Father,  for  the  light  of  knowledge,  which  Thou  madest 
known  to  us  by  Jesus,  Thy  Servant,  To  Thee  be  glory  for  ever. 
As  this  broken  bread  was  scattered  (in  corn-grains)  on  the 
mountains,  and  being  brought  together  became  one,  so  let  Thy 
Church  be  gathered  together  from  the  end  of  the  Earth  into 
Thy  Kingdom."  ^  The  simplicity  of  the  ritual  prescribed  in 
this  Jerusalem  manuscript  contrasts  with  the  subtle  ingenuity 
which  has  transformed  this  spiritual  and  social  communion  into 
an  elaborate  sacrifice  offered  again  to  God  by  the  hands  of  the 
priests.  Yet  far-removed  as  the  ecclesiastical  dogma  is  from 
*  Didache,  ix.  and  x. 


The  Last  Supper  443 

the  naivete  of  the  primitive  love-feast,  we  should  not  fall  into 
the  reactionary  extreme  of  those  who  allow  no  room  for  either 
growth  or  change  in  thought  and  worship.  The  fact  confronts 
us  that  the  mind  of  the  Church  wrought  upon  this  commemora- 
tive covenant  meal,  and  built  upon  its  sacramental  basis  a 
veritable  philosophy  of  life.  The  doctrines  of  Jesus  have  stimu- 
lated the  Church's  illative  faculty,  and  throughout  this  high 
work  there  has  been  given  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit  of  Truth. 
Since  we  dare  not  say  that  the  philosophic  impulse  should  have 
been  excluded  from  the  Church,  neither  ought  we  therefore 
to  check  its  exercise  at  any  particular  stage,  and  say  the  de- 
velopment of  Christian  thought  can  go  no  farther.  Stagnation 
is  our  gravest  peril;  dogmatic  petrifactions  are  our  worst  idols. 
But  our  thinking  should  be  reverent,  sympathetic,  imaginative, 
and  yet  faithful  to  the  sources.  Reviewing  the  past  develop- 
ments from  the  primitive  simplicity  of  the  Didache  down  to 
the  construction  of  the  elaborate  dogma  of  transubstantiation, 
we  see  the  incessant  need  of  sympathetic  imagination.  Those 
reformers  who  throw  such  emphasis  upon  the  verbal  copulative 
"  is,"  and  those  critics  who  dispute  whether  any  copula  was  used 
in  the  Aramaic  original,  all  seem  alike  remote  from  the  mood 
and  thought  of  Jesus  when  He  employed  types  and  symbols 
that  sanctified  the  whole  of  human  life.  Even  such  as  repudiate 
sacerdotalism  as  a  spurious  excrescence  upon  pure  Christianity, 
ought  to  acknowledge  that  the  conception  of  nature  and  life 
taught  by  Jesus,  in  word  and  act,  was  essentially  sacramental. 

12.  It  is  generally  acknowledged,  by  all  who  take  time  to  think 
about  it,  that  the  Master  summed  up  the  chief  message  of  His 
whole  ministry  in  the  poetic  symbolism  of  this  sacrament.  From 
the  hour  of  His  self -identification  with  the  penitents  who  received 
baptism  in  the  Jordan  until  the  evening  when  He  washed  His 
disciples'  feet — or,  from  the  moment  of  His  taking  up  of  John's 
watchword  of  the  Kingdom  to  the  instant  of  His  declaration, 
"  This  is  My  body,"  He  had  uninterruptedly  manifested  the  per- 
fection of  love  as  a  principle  and  dynamic  of  all  true  life;  He 
was  absolutely  dominated  by  love  for  the  Heavenly  Father  and 
for  man,  so  that  every  decision  of  His  Will  was  a  death  unto 
all  selfishness  and  a  rising  again  of  His  nature  in  fuller  amplitude 
of  power  for  service.  His  serene  acceptance  of  tragic  death 
made  that  event  the  sublimest  expression  of  His  spiritual  love. 


444  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

He  gave  Himself  as  bread  to  be  broken  for  the  nourishing  of 
the  higher  Hfe  of  the  world,  knowing  that  by  His  voluntary 
death  the  very  spirit  of  His  life  would  be  appropriated  by  all 
His  disciples.  But  this  metaphor  of  assimilation  must  be  in- 
terpreted through  the  great  keyword  found  in  Christ's  assertion 
that  the  cup  was  the  (new)  Covenant  in  His  blood.^  This  was 
the  word  with  which  Jeremiah  anticipated  an  evangelical  religion 
six  centuries  before,  so  that  its  use  in  this  place  transports  the 
mind  into  the  midst  of  HebFew  conceptions.  "  The  fundamental 
redemptive  idea  in  Israel,  then,  the  most  general  conception  in 
what  might  be  termed  Israel's  consciousness  of  salvation,  was  the 
idea  of  its  being  in  covenant  with  Jehovah."  ^  Taking  up  this 
symbolism,  Jesus  used  the  bread  and  wine  to  represent  His 
own  spirit  and  life,  claiming  that  the  new  covenant  was  real- 
ized and  established  in  Himself.  And  this  assumption  was 
verified,  for  He  did  actually  introduce  His  disciples  into  a  Divine 
fellowship,  a  holy  communion,  wherein  they  were  made  partakers 
of  the  Divine  Nature.  "  In  that  He  saith  a  new  covenant.  He 
hath  made  the  first  old ;  but  that  which  is  becoming  old  is  nigh 
unto  vanishing  away."  The  ancient  covenant  dating  back  to 
Moses  and  Sinai  has  become  obsolete  through  Christ,  and  by 
the  act  of  dying,  which  He  symbolically  anticipates,  a  new,  spirit- 
ual covenant  supersedes  all  fleshly  or  external  ordinances  forever. 
He  would  not  have  His  disciples  look  upon  His  death  as  some 
tragic,  unforeseen  failure :  nay.  He  made  it  the  crowning  act 
of  His  obedience  to  the  Father's  Will ;  and  for  all  time  the  Cross 
abides  as  the  seal  of  the  Kingdom  and  the  chief  instrument  for 
its  extension.  St.  Matthew's  particular  inference,  that  the  shed- 
ding of  His  blood  was  an  efficient  cause  of  the  remission  of  sin 
was  an  inevitable  deduction  from  the  gracious,  extensive  effects 
accruing  from  the  self-sacrifice  of  Jesus. 

13.  Were  we  seeking  to  draw  out  the  profound  implications 
of  this  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  we  should  at  once  con- 
nect it  with  the  mystical  discourse  on  the  Bread  which  cometh 
down  from  Heaven;  but  our  aim  here  is  to  set  the  incident  in 
the  true  perspective  of  Christ's  Ministry,  so  that  it  will  yield 
up  its  inner  meanings  to  subsequent  reflection.  Whether  we 
imagine   that   Jesus   designed   the   continual   repetition   of  this 

*  Diatheke-Berith. 

'  Professor  A.  B.  Davidson,  The  Theology  of  the  Old  Testament,  p.  239. 


The  Last  Supper  445 

Pascha,  or  attribute  its  place  in  the  Church  to  the  instinctive 
love  and  reverence  of  the  disciples;  whether  we  suppose  the 
Master  gave  the  command  to  keep  it  as  a  memorial  after  He 
had  risen,  or  regard  its  persistence  as  due  to  the  evolution  of 
ritual  and  dogma, — we  ought  never  to  lose  the  historical  view 
of  the  simple  pathos  and  sublime  poetry  of  this  the  penultimate 
act  of  Jesus  in  the  days  of  His  flesh.  Those  symbols  of  the 
Bread  and  Wine  expressed  His  triumphal  assurance  that  His 
death  would  sanctify  and  not  destroy  His  relationship  to  men. 
We  are  therefore  bidden,  at  each  celebration,  to  recollect  Him 
whose  Death  affects  all  men's  covenant  with  God;  to  renew  our 
fellowship  with  the  Risen  Lord,  and  to  look  forward  to  His 
glorious  return.  While  we  rejoice  in  this  new  Pascha,  we  are  to 
look  for  its  more  joyous  consummation  in  the  Father's  King- 
dom, when,  in  some  fuller  and  more  perfect  manner,  our  Lord 
will  join  with  us  in  a  festal  communion  of  completed  triumph. 
Seen  in  its  own  light  apart  from  all  cloudy  speculations,  or  re- 
called in  reverent  communion,  this  Sacrament  with  which  Jesus 
Himself  anticipated  and  interpreted  His  death,  wins  upon  our 
hearts,  whelms  the  mind  with  humility  and  grace,  and  imparts 
the  realization  of  a  mystic  consciousness  of  Christ's  pure  and 
perennial  Presence.  And,  as  we  retrace  the  steps  in  this  im- 
pressionist study,  we  are  led  to  believe  without  reservation  in 
the  historicity  of  this  tradition;  for  in  the  refinement  of  its 
pathos,  its  simple  yet  sublime  poetic  conception,  and  its  potency 
as  a  Sacramental  communion,  we  contemplate  an  act  of  religious 
inspiration.  In  other  connections  we  should  say  genius,  for  the 
creation  of  which  no  apostle — not  even  Paul — was  equal.  Like 
so  much  else  in  the  Gospels,  it  rises  clean  above  the  level  of 
apostolic  invention,  so  that  we  are  driven  to  say,  the  Mind  of 
Jesus  alone  can  explain  this  institution. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  VALEDICTION 

I.  A  GRAVE  difficulty  felt  by  all  critical  readers  who  accept 
the  substantial  historicity  of  St.  John,  is  to  find  room  in  the 
Synoptic  scheme  of  the  Passion  History  for  an  interpolation  of 
a  farewell  discourse  such  as  appears  in  the  Fourth  Gospel.  Yet 
notwithstanding  this  perplexity  it  seems  not  incredible  that 
Jesus,  foreseeing  His  speedy  Crucifixion,  should  use  the  Paschal 
meal-time  for  intimate  discourse  with  His  disciples,  in  which  He 
might  lead  their  minds  onward  from  the  simpler  phases  of 
religion  toward  the  profounder  implications  of  their  relationship 
to  Himself.  If,  as  Professor  Burkitt  states,  "  the  doctrine  of 
the  Person  of  Christ  set  forth  in  this  Gospel  expressed  the 
general  conviction  of  the  Church  adequately,"  then  we  must  infer 
that,  since  every  effect  requires  a  cause,  something  must  have 
been  present  in  Qirist's  remembered  instructions  which  promoted 
the  growth  of  these  transcendental  views  of  His  Person.  That 
our  Lord's  valediction  was  composed  of  sayings  relating  to  the 
actual  circumstances  and  needs  of  the  hour  alternated  with 
winged  flights  into  heavenly  altitudes  of  mysticism,  is  inherently 
probable ;  while  the  pathos,  beauty  and  range  of  vision  displayed 
in  the  recorded  discourse  fit  naturally  with  the  majestic  impression 
Jesus  had  continually  and  increasingly  made  upon  His  followers. 
Subsequent  reminiscences  of  this  final  discourse  would  depend 
upon  the  disciples'  understanding;  for,  although  those  men  would 
be  lifted  far  above  themselves,  there  must  have  been  much  they 
could  not  grasp,  and  memory  naturally  loses  hold  upon  sayings 
which  outspan  the  intelligence.  And  it  is  easily  perceived  that 
such  a  discourse,  full  of  delicate  insights  and  lofty  spirituality, 
would  not  be  likely  to  find  a  place  in  the  ordinary  streams  of 
tradition  from  which  the  earlier  Gospels  were  largely  formed. 
Yet,  if  there  were  one  of  that  disciple-band  more  attuned  than 
his  companions  to  the  music  of  the  Master's  mind,  he  would 
be  likely  to  recall,  in  brooding  meditations,  all  the  last  great 
thoughts  of  Jesus;  and,  as  the  years  passed,  he  might  naturally 

446 


The  Valediction  447 

seek  to  perpetuate  his  glowing  memories.  And  if  in  such 
a  work  of  his  old  age  the  author  breathed  the  tones  of  his 
own  cherished  and  dominant  ideas,  still  the  historicity  of  his 
work  would  not  necessarily  be  weakened.  Ecclesiastical  tra- 
dition, which  is  far  from  worthless,  points  to  John  as  such  a 
disciple,  whether  he  were  the  son  of  Zebedee  or  some  pupil  of 
the  Sadducees.  His  intellect  and  heart  were  saturated  and 
dyed  with  the  influence  of  Jesus,  but  inevitably  his  later  memories 
of  his  beloved  Lord  were  all  coloured  by  characteristics  of  the 
thoughts  that  had  mastered  him.  This  man's  delineation  of  the 
Christ  who  lived  in  his  memory  was  bound  to  differ  from  the 
Jesus  depicted  by  earlier  evangelists;  and  yet,  as  the  Socrates 
of  Xenophon  and  of  Plato  is  one  and  the  same  through  all 
differences,  there  is  an  identity  even  more  real  behind  the  presen- 
tations of  Jesus  made  by  the  Synoptics  and  St.  John. 

2.  The  actual  facts  that  succeeded  the  Crucifixion  reflect 
an  air  of  utmost  credibility  upon  the  Johannine  conception  of 
Christ  as  one  possessing  unique  autonomy  and  masterful  purpose. 
Had  Jesus  been  able  neither  to  foresee  the  course  events  would 
follow  nor  take  steps  to  perpetuate  the  fellowship  of  His  disciples, 
then  He  could  not  have  created  such  an  impression  as  the  Gospels 
preserve ;  nor  could  He  have  inaugurated  the  movement  from 
which  Christendom  has  sprung.  St.  John  himself  records  the 
self-evident  motive  for  the  farewell  discourse  in  the  words  of 
Jesus :  "  I  have  spoken  of  these  things  to  you  that  you  may 
not  be  made  to  stumble  .  .  .  that  when  the  hour  for  them 
comes,  you  may  remember  that  I  told  you  of  them.  I  did  not 
tell  you  these  things  at  the  beginning,  because  I  was  with  you." 
It  is  surely  no  valid  objection  to  the  authenticity  of  this  Valedic- 
tion that  it  differs  from  previous  discourses :  the  occasion  accounts 
for  such  difference ;  besides,  the  Master's  teaching  was  bound 
to  be  graduated,  and  His  deepest  instructions  were  necessarily 
delayed  to  the  end  of  His  Ministry.  The  sense  that  His  Paschal 
address  was  a  "  farewell,"  gave  the  turn  to  all  His  speech  and 
wrought  distress  among  His  disciples.  They  felt  that  the  old 
habits  of  the  Galilean  intercourse  were  about  to  be  abandoned 
forever;  they  saw  the  foundations  of  their  cherished  Messianic 
hopes  crumbling  away,  and  trembled  at  vague  presentiments  of 
gloom.  Jesus  speaks  now  of  the  nature  and  functions  of  genu- 
ine discipleship,  passing  beyond  the  tragedy  of  the  Cross  to 


448  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

the  days  of  high  duty  and  witness-bearing  in  the  world.  Al- 
though He  sorrowed  at  Judas's  treachery,  still  He  showed  a 
serene  assurance  that  the  Divin«  Purpose  would  be  fulfilled 
thereby,  and  set  before  His  followers  their  new  charge,  with 
mysterious  promises  of  spiritual  equipment. 

3.  When,  however,  the  general  historicity  of  Christ's  Valedic- 
tion has  been  acknowledged,  another  problem  presents  itself  in 
the  apparent  dislocation  of  the  verses.  Some  readers  will  doubt- 
less insist  that  the  present  sequence  is  due  to  St.  John,  and 
therefore  must  be  correct ;  they  look  upon  the  abrupt  termination 
of  the  first  part  ^  and  the  unexpected  prolongation  of  the  dis- 
course as  due  to  some  actual  interrupting  occurrence,  which  was 
followed  by  a  new  direction  of  thought  and  conversation.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  will  seem  to  some  that  any  transposition  of 
chapters  or  verses  which  results  in  renewed  harmony  and  in- 
creased light  ought  to  be  accepted.  Should  not  the  fifteenth 
and  sixteenth  chapters  be  placed  immediately  after  the  words 
that  relate  Judas's  departure?  Wendt  suggests  that  they  be 
placed  after  ch.  xiii.  35,  and  Moffatt  thinks  still  better  after 
ch.  xiii.  31a.  Plain  it  is,  at  least,  that  the  remark  which  Jesus 
made,2  that  no  one  of  the  disciples  asked  where  He  was  going, 
could  not  have  been  made  after  Simon's  question,^  "  Lord,  where 
art  Thou  going? "  And  the  concluding  words  of  ch.  xiv., 
"  Arise,  let  us  be  going  hence,"  appear  to  belong  to  the  termina- 
tion rather  than  to  the  middle  of  the  discourse.  It  is  not,  how- 
ever, an  utter  impossibility  that  our  Lord  should  have  spoken 
the  allegory  of  the  Vine  after  rising  from  the  Supper,  either 
before,  or  after  leaving  the  room.  Further  surprise  is  occasioned 
by  the  sense  of  retrospection  which  pervades  the  Consecration 
Prayer  of  the  seventeenth  chapter :  it  reads  as  though  the  Cruci- 
fixion and  Resurrection  lay  behind  it,  so  that  one  naturally 
wonders  if  it  may  not  have  been  spoken  at  some  interval  between 
the  Resurrection  and  Ascension.*  Whether  such  rearrangements 
of  the  materials  of  this  section  of  St.  John's  gospel  be  made,  or  the 
present  order  of  the  text  be  retained,  there  is  apparent  to  all  a 
marked  agreement  of  its  teaching  with  the  apostolic  doctrine  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Church's  history.  At  this  crisis  of  His  Ministry, 
then,  Jesus  Himself  created  the  moulds  of  a  new  religious  con- 

*  John  xiv.  31.  'Ibid.  xvi.  5.  ^  'xiii.  36. 

*  This  suggestion  is  made  by  Briggs. 


The  Valediction  449 

sciousness,  or  the  material  of  His  history  has  been  modified  by  the 
subsequent  beliefs  of  the  apostles.  Now,  while  we  admit  the 
native  tendency  of  the  mind  to  read  its  own  inferences  back  into 
the  remembrance  of  the  Teacher's  thought,  and  are  willing  to 
allow  for  its  influence  in  helping  to  shape  the  ultimate  forms  of 
evangelic  tradition;  we  surely  cannot  accept  any  hypothesis  as 
satisfactory  that  leaves  the  sudden  emergence  of  the  apostolic 
doctrine  of  the  Person  and  Work  of  Jesus  as  a  fact  and  effect 
without  any  intelligible  cause.  The  Gospel  which  was  centred 
in  the  Person  of  Jesus  did  not  come  as  a  bolt  from  the  blue: 
even  the  Pauline  Christology  was  not  revealed  from  heaven 
at  a  stroke;  but  it  issued  from  the  concrete  history  of  Jesus, 
and  because  it  was  believed  there  was  a  motive  for  the  rise  and 
transmission  of  the  traditions  concerning  Him.  How  intelligible 
the  whole  subsequent  history  becomes,  therefore,  if  we  believe 
that,  at  the  supreme  crisis  of  His  mission,  just  immediately  before 
He  was  crucified,  Jesus  gathered  His  disciples  together  and 
imparted  to  them  such  final  and  consummating  doctrines  as  St. 
John  records  in  this  Farewell  Discourse,  thus  crowning  all  His 
previous  self-revelations  with  a  full  explication  of  his  life, 
thought  and  purpose !  The  transcendentalism  of  this  valedic- 
tion, which  is  a  cause  of  offence  to  many  a  critic,  is  really  the 
best  explanation  of  the  mysterious  influence  of  Jesus  upon  the 
world  after  He  was  crucified. 

4.  The  illusive  hopes,  that  Jesus  would  prove  Himself  to  be  a 
political  Messiah,  had  all  been  banished  from  the  mind  of  Judas ; 
but  unhappily,  in  his  case  no  spiritual  ideal  had  taken  their 
place,  and  when  he  saw  that  Jesus  perceived  his  incorrigible 
baseness  and  desired  him  to  leave  the  disciple-group,  he  went 
out  determined  if  possible  to  make  his  own  place  secure  in  the 
coming  debacle  of  the  movement  Jesus  had  initiated.  Deeply 
wounded  though  the  Master  was  by  the  infidelity  of  Judas,  He 
at  once  sought  to  heal  the  breach  in  the  disciple-group  by  laying 
emphasis  upon  their  abiding  unity  with  Himself.  Prophets  and 
psalmists  had  conceived  of  Israel  as  the  Kingdom  of  God  under 
the  figure  of  the  vine  which  Jehovah  had  planted,  and  they  had 
strained  the  capacity  of  language  to  set  forth  the  future  of  this 
vineyard.  Jesus  now  lays  His  consecrating  touch  upon  this 
figure  of  the  vine,  and  appropriates  it  for  ever  as  the  symbolism 
of  the  unity  and  fruitfulness  of  the  fellowship  which  the  disciples 


450  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

have  realized  under  the  spell  of  His  Personality.  Jesus  is  the 
genuine  Vine;  His  disciples  are  the  branches:  the  roots,  stem 
and  branches  are  all  joined  in  organic  unity ;  severance  at  any 
point  would  put  an  end  to  all  fruitfulness.  The  disciples  are 
in  Christ  as  branches  in  the  vine;  Christ  is  in  them  as  the  living 
sap  flowing  through  the  branches.  The  Heavenly  Father  is  the 
Vine-dresser;  fruitless  branches  like  Judas  He  lops  off;  fruitful 
branches — loyal  disciples — He  prunes  and  disciplines,  that  they 
may  become  more  fruitful.  In  the  Galilean  discourses,  Jesus 
had  uttered  the  parables  of  the  Sower  and  the  Seed,  of  the 
Tares  and  the  Mustard-seed,  of  the  Leaven  and  the  Drag-net: 
but  now  all  other  figures  give  place  to  the  old  yet  ever  new  symbol 
of  the  Vine.  The  Israel  after  the  flesh  is  lost  sight  of ;  for  here, 
in  this  disciple-group  around  Jesus,  is  the  true  seed  of  the  nation 
— a  Spiritual  Israel,  the  true  Vine  which  God  has  planted.  In 
speaking  this  parable,  Jesus  pierces  through  the  rind  of  phe- 
nomena— that  external  sphere  wherein  separateness  and  aloof- 
ness of  one  from  another  seem  to  be  the  conditions  of  life;  He 
points  to  the  mysterious  network  and  ground  of  spiritual  exist- 
ence in  which  all  personal  life  must  be  rooted.  At  the  centre 
of  such  personal  unions  is  Jesus  Himself  as  the  very  root  and 
stock  out  of  which  they  grow.  Though  He  will  soon  be  with- 
drawn from  the  disciples  as  a  physical  presence,  He  will  still 
be  bound  up  with  them  in  the  New  Kingdom.  In  the  symbolism 
of  the  Vine  every  mind  will  find  meanings  according  to  its  own 
depth  and  capacity;  but  to  one  and  all  the  figure  is  an  emblem 
of  Christ's  unbroken  communion  with  His  disciples  on  earth. 
Thus,  on  the  eve  of  His  anticipated  crucifixion  Jesus  looks  calmly 
forward  to  an  abiding  relationship  with  His  disciples,  which 
implies  the  continuous  impartation  and  projection  of  His  own 
life  in  and  through  them.  In  this  mystic  radiance  the  Heavenly 
Christ  is  seen  to  live  on  forever  in  His  followers ;  and  at  every 
new  exigency  and  demand  of  experience  He  will  feed  their  life 
with  the  Divine  energies  of  His  own  soul. 

5.  This  connection  of  the  disciples  with  Christ  is  conditional 
upon  the  indwelling  of  His  words — teachings,  commands  and 
truths — in  them.  As  the  thoughts  of  Jesus  are  unfolded  in  this 
farewell  address,  it  is  shown  that  the  abiding  of  Christ's  words 
in  the  disciple  is  equivalent  to  the  disciple's  remaining  in  His 
love;  and  this,  again,  is  equated  with  the  keeping  of  His  com- 


The  Valediction  451 

mandments.  Only  through  this  mutual  indwelling — reciprocal 
affection  and  moral  obedience  of  the  disciples  to  the  Lord — can 
His  joy  become  theirs.  That  joy  was  born  of  self-sacrifice; 
it  could  exist  even  in  the  midst  of  the  agony  of  Gethesmane. 
All  through  His  ministry,  Jesus  was  animated  by  love  for  His 
disciples;  and  now  He  tells  them  that,  if  they  have  received  His 
love,  so  that  in  them  it  is  become  an  active  principle  of  inter- 
course, then  they  have  a  bond  of  union  and  a  guarantee  of 
continuance  which  will  more  than  supply  the  lack  of  His  physical 
presence.  They  dimly  perceived  that  Jesus  was  offering  con- 
solation for  the  deprivation  of  His  bodily  presence,  and  yet  all 
the  time  they  were  hoping  that  He  would  not  leave  them. 
His  next  thought,  however,  jarred  upon  all  their  illusions;  for 
He  tells  them  that  the  trial  of  discipleship  would  grow  in  in- 
tensity through  persecution,  but  that  in  this  also  He  would  be 
their  pattern,  for  as  the  world  hated  Him  so  it  would  hate  them. 
Men  will  misunderstand  them,  excommunicate  them  from  the 
synagogue — yea,  even  kill  them,  and  think  that  by  doing  so  they 
are  performing  religious  service  to  God.  Jesus  gives,  as  the 
motive  of  His  predictions,  the  desire  that  they  may  remember 
when  these  things  happen  that  He  had  told  them.  If  He  did 
not  foretell  these  things  to  His  disciples,  then  the  writer  of  these 
words  must  have  deliberately  and  consciously  invented  them. 
Hitherto,  Jesus  says.  He  had  been  with  them  and  it  had  been 
unnecessary  to  tell  them  these  things,  but  now  He  is  going  away. 
He  remarks  upon  their  strange  silence ;  it  surprises  Him  that 
they  do  not  ask  whither  He  is  going!  Henceforth  His  discourse 
is  filled  with  the  thought  of  His  impending  departure,  and  as  they 
listen  to  His  words  they  begin  to  evince  their  great  sadness. 
Jesus  had  weaned  them  from  their  old  ways ;  He  had  awakened 
their  distrust  in  the  guidance  of  conventional  Jewish  teaching; 
He  had  wooed  and  won  their  trust  in  Himself;  and  now,  when 
His  work  has  scarcely  got  beyond  its  beginning,  He  talks  of 
going  away.  Seeing  that  He  has  grieved  and  perplexed  them, 
Jesus  seeks  to  comfort  them  with  the  promise  of  another  Para- 
clete— ^the  Spirit  of  Truth,  who  will  come  to  them  as  the  inward 
guide.  There  is  an  advantage  in  this  withdrawal  of  the  Master's 
visible  presence;  for,  had  He  remained  with  them  forever,  they 
would  not  have  grown  out  of  childhood  into  the  religion  of 
manhood.  The  work  He  had  begun  would  not  cease:  it  would 
indeed  be  changed  in  character,  but  it  would  pass  on  to  maturer 


452  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

developments  under  the  Spirit  who  "  will  convince  the  world  of 
sin,  and  of  uprightness,  and  of  condemnation."  The  Loving 
Master  fain  would  have  told  them  new  and  higher  truths,  but  He 
sees  that  further  experience  is  needed  to  prepare  them :  hence,  He 
promises  that  the  Spirit  of  Truth  will  instruct  them.  The  matter 
and  theme  of  the  Spirit's  pedagogy  will  be  the  historic  life 
and  teachings  of  Jesus  Himself;  the  Paraclete  will  draw  out  in 
their  minds  the  inevitable  inferences  of  Christ's  doctrines :  "  He 
shall  glorify  Me,  for  He  shall  take  what  is  Mine  and  disclose  it 
to  you."  "  All  that  the  Father  has  is  Mine :  hence,  I  said.  He 
takes  of  what  is  Mine  and  shall  disclose  it  to  you."  Jesus  felt 
that  He  had  not  exhausted  the  well  of  truth ;  He  had  simply 
opened  it,  cleared  away  obstructions,  that  men  might  drink  there- 
from. The  few  brief  years  of  His  incarnate  ministry  would 
wield  an  abiding  influence  upon  His  disciples,  and  would  afford 
a  body  of  historic  truth  which  the  other  Paraclete  would  use 
for  human  enlightenment.  Those  disciples  were  shaken  as  by 
an  earthquake ;  the  thin  crust  of  the  earth's  surface  was  broken ; 
but,  peering  into  the  deep  crevasse  of  mystery,  they  caught  gleams 
of  eternal  reality.  The  vagueness  of  the  promise  of  guidance 
and  teaching  through  the  Spirit  within  the  disciples  appears 
to  open  up  dangerous  realms,  where  mirage  and  illusion  may 
shed  false  gleams ;  but  while  we  discern  the  dangers  made  so 
manifest  in  Church  History,  we  must  still  hold  to  the  validity 
of  this  great  promise.  Especially  ought  it  to  be  remembered 
that  the  Spirit  of  Truth  guides  the  disciples  not  merely  to 
fuller  knowledge  of  doctrine,  but  also  to  greater  energy  of 
virtuous  action ;  and  the  strenuous  activity  of  the  good-will  of 
Christ's  disciples  will  shield  them  from  the  peculiar  dangers  of 
illusive  intellectuality.^ 

6.  The  very  sadness  of  the  occasion  tended  to  rob  life  of  its 
zest,  and  to  depress  the  normal  alertness  of  their  minds ;  and, 
seeing  this,  Jesus  sought  to  excite  their  curiosity  by  an  unfor- 
gettable paradox :  "  A  little  while,  and  ye  shall  not  see  Me :  and 
again,  a  little  while,  and  ye  shall  see  Me;  because  I  go  to  the 
Father.     They  said  therefore,  what  is  this  that  He  saith,  a  little 

*  Sanday,  The  Life  of  Christ  in  Recent  Research,  "  The  Holy  Spirit  is 
the  bond  which  binds  all  humanity  together  in  one.  In  each  one  of  us 
He  is  present  after  our  measure,  but  in  Christ  He  dwelt  as  the  fulness  of 
the  Godhead  bodily"  (p.  310). 


The  Valediction  453 

while?  We  cannot  tell  what  He  saith."  Jesus  meets  their  alarm 
and  distrust  with  a  prediction  that  their  sorrow  at  His  with- 
drawal will  only  seem  like  the  travail-pangs  of  a  woman,  which 
at  the  birth  of  the  child  pass  into  joy.  Separation  will  be  fol- 
lowed by  reunion !  The  withdrawal  of  the  physical  presence 
shall  be  followed  by  a  new  perception  of  His  spiritual  indwelling ; 
they  shall  lose  Him  from  sense  and  find  Him  in  their  souls. 
Unto  His  disciples  would  be  given  the  manifestations  of  the 
Spirit ;  they  shall  see  Him  who  is  invisible ;  the  old  relations 
between  the  Lord  and  His  disciples  will  give  place  to  new 
and  deeper  realizations ;  He  will  be  more  to  them  than  ever. 
"  Up  till  now  you  have  asked  nothing  in  My  name ;  ask  and 
you  shall  receive  that  your  joy  may  be  complete."  He  gives 
His  name,  His  personal  character,  His  abiding  life,  as  the 
dynamic  and  inspiration  of  prayer.  The  use  of  His  name  is  no 
exercise  of  a  magical  formula;  it  signifies  identity  in  aim  and 
desires  between  disciple  and  Lord.  His  earthly  life  was  as  a 
journey ;  God  was  its  starting-point  and  its  goal :  "  I  came  out 
from  the  Father,  and  I  have  come  into  the  world :  again,  I  am 
leaving  the  world  and  going  to  the  Father."  His  awed  listeners 
catch  at  this  saying,  as  affording  them  illumination: 

"  Behold,  now  Thou  art  talking  openly  and  speaking  no  proverb ;  ' 
Now  we  know  that  Thou  knowest  all  and  requirest  no  one  to  question 

thee; 
Hereby  we  believe  Thou  earnest  out  from  God." 

Their  enthusiasm,  though  bafifled  and  depressed,  was  ready  to 
spring  forth  again  at  the  slightest  solicitation ;  but  the  Master 
steadies  them  by  allusion  to  the  coming  crisis,  which  will  scatter 
all  His  followers. 

7.  The  remainder  of  this  Valediction  falls  into  four  sections, 
divided  naturally  by  questions  asked  respectively  by  Peter,  Philip, 
Thomas  and  Judas ;  and  the  appositeness  of  the  several  queries 
to  the  known  characters  of  at  least  three  of  them  gives  a  ring 
of  historicity  to  the  dialogue.  When  Simon  asks,  "  Lord,  where 
art  Thou  going?  "  Jesus  replies  that  His  disciple  is  not  prepared 
to  follow  now,  though  the  time  will  assuredly  come  when  he  will 
be  so.  With  characteristic  vehemence  Simon  protests  that  he 
is  ready  to  lay  down  his  life  for  his  Lord  even  now;  but  Jesus 

1  napoifiia. 


454  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

deprecates  this  headlong  zeal,  and  warns  him  that  in  a  short 
time  he  will  deny  Him  thrice.  The  Master  has  no  wish  to  dash 
their  hopes  to  the  ground,  nor  to  overwhelm  them  with  self- 
suspicion;  He  cherishes  an  almost  paternal  affection,  and  seeks 
to  comfort  them  with  words  of  immortal  expectancy.  He  is 
about  to  pass  to  another  abode  in  His  Father's  house;  He  has 
not  deluded  them ;  the  movement  of  life  has  its  definite  goal ; 
He  will  withdraw  in  order  to  still  pursue  His  mediatorial  minis- 
try under  other  conditions,  and  at  the  proper  hour  He  will  return 
to  guide  them  home.  He  is  saying  that  they  know  the  way, 
when  Thomas  interrupts  with  a  profession  of  ignorance  even 
of  their  destination,  and  a  half-remonstrant  question,  "  How 
then  are  we  to  know  the  way  ?  "  The  images  of  locality  fit 
in  with  the  movement  of  life,  and  Jesus  affirms :  "I  am  the 
way,  the  truth  and  the  life;  no  man  comes  to  the  Father  except 
through  Me."  His  Ministry  had  not  the  characteristic  of  aim- 
lessness.  Jesus  moved  across  our  history  with  the  unwavering 
tread  of  one  who  knew  His  destination;  He  came  from  God, 
He  went  to  God.^  Hitherto  He  had  been  an  external  Teacher: 
henceforth  they  will  treat  Him  as  the  personal  way  of  God  in 
the  world.  In  the  sphere  of  His  influence,  His  disciples  will 
live;  along  His  way  of  self-sacrifice  they  will  walk  Godward. 
The  very  truth  for  which  men  hunger  was  embodied  in  Him; 
He  was  a  springing  fountain  of  spiritual  life  for  the  world. 
Hearing  the  repeated  name  of  Father,  Philip  asks  for  some 
theophany,  such  as  Moses  received — some  definite,  tangible  man- 
ifestation of  God.  Through  the  obscurity  and  confusion  of  such 
a  request,  there  glows  the  fervid  spiritual  aspiration  of  a  noble 
soul;  but  Philip  has  to  learn  that  all  material  disclosure  such 
as  his  fancy  depicted  would  leave  the  deepest  longing  unsated. 
Jesus  was  grieved  that  Philip  should  show  so  little  understand- 
ing of  His  Ministry,  and  makes  the  memorable  answer  that 
through  His  own  life  God  is  unveiled  to  man:  "He  that  hath 
seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father." 

8.  Once  more  the  Master  seeks  to  make  them  feel  that  they 
share  His  mission,  that  they  must  perpetuate  His  works.  He 
promises  also  that  He  will  do  in  the  future  whatsoever  they 
ask  in  His  Name,  so  that  even  "  greater  works  "  shall  be  done ; 
it  will  be  the  Lord  Himself  acting  in  them,  and  through  them 
*  Hort,  The  Way,  The  Truth,  The  Life,  lect.  i.,  p.  12 


The  Valediction  455 

by  His  Spirit.  Let  them  not  be  as  a  vessel  rocked  by  a  storm; 
though  He  is  going  away  His  alter  ego,  the  Paraclete,  will 
come;  for  this  Spirit  is  truly  the  Spirit  of  Christ  Himself.  In- 
stead of  mourning,  they  ought  to  rejoice  that  He  is  going  to  His 
Father,  and  that  He  will  receive  again  the  glory  of  His  pre- 
incarnate  state.  These  words  will  seem  to  many  too  profound 
and  technically  theological  to  have  come  from  the  lips  of  Him 
who  uttered  the  gracious  parables  in  Galilee;  and  yet  there  is 
neither  contradiction  nor  incompatibility,  only  a  fitting  develop- 
ment of  ideas  and  of  Christ's  self-revelation.  It  would  have 
been  futile  to  have  spoken  in  this  manner  at  any  earlier  time; 
but  if  the  Church  had  to  be  established  and  given  a  permanent 
consciousness,  there  was  a  propriety  in  such  utterances  at  this 
crisis ;  and  further,  such  sayings  alone  explain  all  the  events 
that  followed ;  for  there  is  fullest  harmony  between  cause  and 
effect.  The  coming  of  the  Spirit  will  be  Christ's  own  return,  so 
that  though  they  miss  His  bodily  presence,  they  shall  contemplate 
Him  in  a  way  that  the  world  will  not  understand.  Judas 
Lebbseus  feels  the  bewilderment  which  springs  from  the  in- 
vincible materialism  of  the  popular  Messianism,  and  asks  how 
Jesus  will  appear  to  the  disciples  while  He  remains  unseen  by 
the  world.  The  Master  answers  the  thought  rather  than  the 
words  of  the  question,  and  defines  the  conditions  of  love  and 
obedience  by  which  the  disciples  shall  experience  this  vision  of 
the  Invisible.  Even  though  the  customs  and  habits  of  the  old 
association  be  dissolved,  Jesus  promises  to  sustain  them  in  a 
higher  relationship  with  Himself  and  the  Father  through  the 
Spirit.  When  His  little  bark — the  Church — is  heaving  in  the 
dreadful  tempest,  Jesus  makes  the  great  bequest  of  peace;  He 
expresses  the  confidence  of  victory  on  the  eve  of  seeming  defeat ; 
then  brings  His  discourse  to  a  close  with  the  command,  "  Rise, 
let  us  be  going  hence !  " 

9.  Our  minds  are  imbued  with  wonder  and  awe  at  these 
revelations;  and,  if  one  be  convinced  that  these  sayings  are 
genuine,  he  spontaneously  and  instinctively  bows  the  knee  to 
this  Victorious  Christ.  And  if  they  be  not  considered  genuine, 
how  shall  we  account  for  them?  The  death  of  Jesus  did  not 
dissolve  His  society ; — it  remained  and  grew  in  spite  of  all 
opposition ;  and  its  development  was  not  due  alone  to  the  propa- 
ganda of  ideas,  but  also  to  the  contagion  of  a  new   force  of 


456  The  Last  Days  of  the  Passion 

social  love  generated  by  the  abiding  Person  of  Christ.  The 
apostles  acted  under  the  conviction  that  they  were  guided  and 
energized  by  the  indwelling  Paraclete;  the  members  rejoiced 
in  the  faith  that  Jesus  had  risen  from  the  dead,  and  after  "  a 
little  while  " — an  interregnum  of  forty  days — had  come  again 
as  the  Spirit  of  Truth.  The  historic  consequences  throw  an 
air  of  probability  over  the  antecedents  as  they  are  recorded  by 
St.  John  in  the  tender,  last  Farewell  of  Jesus  before  His  Cruci- 
fixion. That  only  one  disciple  should  have  transmitted  the  con- 
tinuous narrative  of  these  holy  truths  spoken  by  Jesus  before  the 
final  crisis,  is  not  too  difficult  to  understand;  for  even  that 
disciple  could  only  slowly  master  the  meaning  of  the  things 
which  belong  to  this  consummation  of  Christ's  self-disclosure. 
As  he  brooded  over  his  holy  memories  and  the  experiences  of 
life  deepened  and  refined  his  soul,  the  dark  and  almost  forgotten 
sayings  leapt  out  in  His  Mind  like  words  of  flame.  And  if 
Christ  be  what  this  Fourth  Gospel  affirms  Him  to  be,  there  is 
no  difficulty  in  believing  that  He  gave  utterance  to  such  truths 
as  these ;  but  if  He  be  not  such  an  one  as  the  Evangelist  depicts, 
then  we  have  no  key  either  for  this  final  discourse  or  for  the 
Jesus  of  the  Synoptics.  It  is  easier  for  us  to  believe  that  the 
last  words  of  the  Master  recurred  to  the  mind  in  proportion 
as  the  disciple's  understanding  of  Him  grew  through  years  of 
experience,  than  to  attribute  to  some  anonymous  scribe  the 
capacious  intellect  to  create  such  thoughts,  and  the  doubtful 
morality  of  assigning  them  to  the  utterance  of  Jesus. 


BOOK  IX 

THE  FINISHED  WORK 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  HOUR  AND  THE  CUP 

I.  The  final  scenes  of  our  Lord's  Ministry  are  so  tragic  and 
replete  with  importance  for  our  World,  that  innate  reverence 
prompts  us  to  touch  with  much  restraint  upon  the  sacred  mys- 
tery of  a  great  sorrow.  Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  the  habit  of 
unflinching  interrogation,  which  is  one  of  the  characteristics  of 
the  mind's  insatiable  hunger  for  truth,  compels  us  to  treat  the 
records  of  the  Lord's  Passion  critically  before  we  strive  to  make 
a  synthesis  of  the  discrepant  traditions.  It  should  not  surprise 
us  to  discover  that  our  several  sources  contain  data  that  are 
difficult  to  harmonize.  The  apostles  who  must  have  played  so 
large  a  part  in  originating  the  several  lines  of  testimony  and 
tradition  were  not  calm,  scientific  observers  of  the  Passion ; 
they  were  men  caught  in  the  eddies  of  a  great  movement,  whose 
meaning  and  issues  they  were  unable  to  discern ;  and  the  -in- 
evitable note  of  personal  interest  enters  into  their  witness.  But 
numerous  and  difficult  as  their  discrepancies  seem  to  us,  the 
several  gospels  irresistibly  assure  the  reader  that  he  is  in  touch 
with  a  solid,  reliable  basis  of  fact,  and  the  resultant  impression 
of  the  figure  of  the  Man  of  Sorrows  conveys  its  own  convincing 
historicity.  One  of  our  difficulties  arises  so  soon  as  we  make 
the  transition  from  the  serene  Speaker  of  the  Valediction  to  the 
agonized  Sufferer  of  the  Garden.  But  this  very  difficulty,  which 
meets  a  merely  literary  criticism,  attests  itself  to  dramatic  in- 
sight as  inherently  probable.  We  have  already  observed  the 
remarkable  parallelism  of  the  Johannine  and  Synoptic  records, 
and  have  suggested  that  the  resembling  yet  different  series  of 
events  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  ought  not  to  be  excluded  as  in- 
compatible with  the  earlier  narratives,  nor  identified  as  the  same 
incidents  which  have  been  changed  in  transmission,  but  may 
be  looked  upon  as  a  reliable  supplement  drawn  out  of  the  wealth 
of  veritable  apostolic  reminiscence.  And  now  we  may  preface 
our  impressionist  study  of  the  arrest  of  Jesus  by  an  enumeration 

459 


460  The  Finished  Work 

of  some  of  the  remaining  difficulties  that  cHng  to  the  Passion 
narratives.  The  Lucan  agrees  with  the  Johannine  account  of 
the  Master's  warning  of  Simon's  fall,  placing  it  in  the  midst 
of  His  discourse  before  they  left  the  supper-chamber;  but  in 
this  both  differ  from  St.  ]\Iatthew  and  St.  Mark.  Again, 
the  Synoptists  disagree  among  themselves  in  the  grouping  of 
the  disciples  in  the  Garden  and  in  regard  to  Christ's  reiterated 
prayer.  St.  Luke,  for  instance,  makes  no  mention  of  the  three- 
fold repetition  of  the  prayer,  while,  although  the  earlier  evan- 
gelists have  represented  the  disciples  in  two  companies,  the 
chosen  three  of  the  inner  group  being  nearer  to  our  Lord  in 
His  agony,  St.  Luke  records  the  remonstrance  about  their  sleep- 
ing when  He  desired  them  to  watch,  as  though  it  were  addressed 
alike  to  all  the  eleven.  Some  differences,  however,  are  not  so 
discrepant,  but  add  fresh  shades  of  meaning  to  a  more  meagre 
report:  thus,  in  the  slackened  intensity  of  the  second  stage  of 
struggle  and  prayer  peculiar  to  St.  Matthew,  we  seem  to  trace 
the  passing  of  the  soul's  first  instinctive  revolt  into  a  gradual 
acceptance  of  the  sorrow  as  a  part  of  the  Divine  plan.  There  are 
also  some  characteristic  touches  in  St.  Luke's  account,  such 
as  the  movement  of  Jesus  in  advance  of  His  disciples,  the 
explanation  that  they  slept  "  for  sorrow,"  and  the  statement  that 
Jesus  restored  the  wounded  ear  of  Malchus.  The  same  Evan- 
gelist, although  in  other  parts  of  His  gospel  he  has  softened 
some  of  St.  Mark's  realism,  here  accentuates  Christ's  human- 
ity with  the  description  of  His  agony  in  prayer,  that  "  His 
sweat  became,  as  it  were,  great  drops  of  blood  falling  down 
upon  the  ground."  Yet  a  further  addition  made  by  St.  Luke 
is  the  statement  that  there  were  chief-priests,  commanders  of 
the  temple,  and  elders  in  the  crowd  that  came  out  to  arrest 
Jesus.  St.  John  ventures  to  give  the  name  of  the  "  bystander  " 
who  resorted  to  the  sword  in  defence  of  the  Master,  and  we 
learn  that  it  was  no  other  than  Simon  Peter;  while  the  same 
author  affirms  that  a  cohort,  or  detachment  of  Roman  soldiers, 
came  to  ensure  the  arrest  and  prevent  disorder.  St.  John  alludes 
to  the  presence  of  Judas,  but  remains  silent  concerning  the 
traitor's  kiss.  He  attributes  to  Jesus  an  initiative  in  the  mode 
of  His  arrest,  noting  that  He  stepped  forward  with  the  question, 
"  Whom  do  you  seek  ?  "  This  Evangelist  alludes  to  the  agony 
only  in  a  veiled  way,  recording  that  when  Jesus  commanded  Peter 
to  put  back  his  sword  He  inquired,  "  Shall  I  not  drink  the  cup 


The  Hour  and  the  Cup  461 

which  the  Father  has  given  Me  ?  "  Now,  were  all  these  char- 
acteristic touches  and  differences  of  narration  submitted  to  an 
unprejudiced  judge,  he  would  deem  them  corroborative  of  the 
main  facts,  convergent  upon  one  resultant  figure  of  the  Great 
Sufferer,  who  voluntarily  bore  His  agony ;  who  shrank  from  His 
destiny  in  momentary  uncertainty,  and  yet  exhibited  a  triumphant 
fortitude  in  the  sacrifice. 

2.  When  the  Valedictory  Discourse  was  ended,  they  sang  a 
hymn — "  the  Hallel  " ;  ^  and  Jesus  then  led  His  eleven  disciples 
away  to  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane,  where  He  was  wont  to  seek 
retirement.  As  they  went  He  recalled  Zechariah's  oracle  con- 
cerning the  rejection  of  the  Shepherd  Messiah,  and  pointed  out 
that  the  blow  struck  at  Him  would  cause  them  to  stumble  and 
temporarily  disperse.  Yet  once  again,  with  the  warning.  He 
anticipates  a  subsequent  recovery,  when  He  would  rejoin  them 
in  Galilee.  At  the  entrance  of  the  grove  Jesus  told  the  little 
company  to  await  there,  and,  taking  His  three  most  intimate 
disciples,  went  a  little  farther.  Hitherto  He  had  appeared 
serenely  certain  of  ultimate  victory,  and  had  poured  out  words 
of  solace  and  encouragement ;  but  now  He  manifested  signs 
of  great  mental  distress,  and  said  to  His  three  companions, 
"  My  soul  is  very  sorrowful  unto  death  !  Stay  here  and  watch !  " 
This  swift  alternation  of  mood  is  far  from  inexplicable.  Many 
a  man,  foreseeing  grave  dangers,  in  the  presence  of  wife  and 
children  will  give  utterance  to  expressions  of  hope,  calmness 
and  patient  trust;  and  then,  a  few  moments  later,  when  with- 
drawn with  a  strong  and  faithful  friend,  he  will  begin  to  speak 
of  apprehensions  and  perplexity.  There  are  different  planes  of 
consciousness  in  the  abysmal  depths  of  personality,  and  a  man 
often  passes  swiftly  from  one  to  another.  It  is  often  as  though 
within  each  self,  as  within  the  intricate  coils  of  some  mysterious 
shell,  there  were  many  selves :  some  live  out  their  little  lives 
without  ever  reaching  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  inner- 
most uniting  principle  of  personality,  while  others  come  to  that 
knowledge  only  through  tragic  developments  of  sorrow.  If  but 
the  crust  of  habit  be  broken,  what  strange,  tumultuous  fires  are 
disclosed !  In  the  closing  scenes  of  our  Lord's  Ministry  recorded 
in  the  Gospels,  we  see  reflected  the  swift  transitions  from  the 
calm  surface  consciousness  to  the  inward  agony  of  His  inner 

*  Ps.  cxv-cxviii. 


462  The  Finished  Work 

life — from  the  habitual  trust  in   His  Heavenly   Father  to  the 
torture  of  dreadful  uncertainty. 

3.  Jesus  requested  His  three  disciples  to  watch;  then,  going 
about  a  stone's  throw  away,  He  fell  upon  His  face  and  prayed: 
"  Abba — Father, — all  things  are  possible  with  Thee :  remove  this 
cup  from  Me:  but  not  what  I  will,  but  what  Thou  [wilt]." 
All  docetic  theories  of  Christ  break  upon  this  history  of  His 
Passion.  The  agonized  confession  in  St.  Mark  has  parallels 
in  the  other  Synoptic  Gospels.  St.  Matthew  says,  "  He  began 
to  be  sorrowful  and  dismayed  "  ;^  while  St.  Luke  writes  signifi- 
cantly that  "  He  tore  himself  away  from  them,"  i.e.  the  disciples,^ 
and  in  the  restrained  allusion  to  our  Lord's  repeated  prayer 
and  sweat  of  blood,  there  is  suggested  the  experience  of  intensest 
suffering.  How  vivid  the  remembrance  of  this  struggle  was 
may  be  seen  from  the  citing  of  it  to  prove  the  reality  of 
Christ's  humanity  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews :  "  Who  in  the 
days  of  His  flesh,  having  offered  up  prayers  and  supplications 
with  strong  crying  and  tears  unto  Him  that  was  able  to  save 
Him  from  death  .  .  .  learned  obedience  by  the  things  which 
He  suffered."  ^  The  duration  of  this  final  struggle  is  only  sug- 
gested by  the  statement  that  in  His  agony  He  prayed  "  more 
extendedly."  *  It  is  most  surprising  that,  believing  that  Jesus 
was  Son  of  God  and  Lord  of  men,  these  Evangelists  never  for 
a  moment  seem  to  wish  any  concealment  of  the  painful  and 
extended  struggle  through  which  He  passed  into  reconcilement 
with  so  dark  a  dispensation  of  Divine  Providence.  As  we  re- 
call the  calm  Stoic  fortitude  of  other  martyrs  it  will  seem  passing 
strange  that  Jesus,  for  whom  the  claim  of  transcendence  is 
made,  should  experience  a  shrinking  so  akin  to  a  break-down 
of  nerves.  Perhaps  insight  into  this  mystery  of  sorrow  depends 
upon  moral  stature ;  but  all  must  feel  that  here  there  is  a 
margin  for  incertitude,  and  only  ignorance  dares  to  be  dog- 
matic. An  absence  of  sympathy,  however,  will  ever  cause  men 
to  misconstrue  this  retirement  to  the  Garden :  thus,  for  instance, 
the  Jew  of  Celsus  says,  "  How  should  we  deem  Him  to  be  a 
God,  who  not  only  in  other  respects,  as  was  currently  reported, 
performed  none  of  His  promises,  but  who  also,  after  we  had 
convicted  Him,  and  condemned  Him  as  deserving  of  punishment, 
was  found  attempting  to  conceal  Himself,  and  endeavouring  to 

^ai^fiovuv.  *  aanduBri  air' avTuv.  '  Heb.   v.   7-9.  * 'tKTevioTepov, 


The  Hour  and  the  Cup  463 

escape  in  a  most  disgraceful  manner,  and  who  was  betrayed 
by  those  whom  He  called  disciples."  ^  But  Jesus  sought  no 
concealment,  nor  made  attempts  to  escape  the  treachery  He  had 
foreseen.  The  Passion  in  the  Garden  cannot  be  misread  as 
the  struggle  of  unsuccessful  flight. 

4.  Of  what  nature  was  the  agony  Jesus  suflfered  on  the  eve 
of  His  Crucifixion?  Some  have  queried  whether  it  was  the  fear 
of  physical  death,  since  the  very  fineness  of  His  bodily  organiza- 
tion may  have  made  the  anticipation  of  a  violent  death  a  revolt- 
ing thing.  But  we  think  there  was  some  profounder  mental 
and  moral  cause  for  His  distress.  The  Gospels  reveal  a  tem- 
porary disturbance  in  His  vision  of  His  Father's  Will.  He  who 
had  until  now  maintained  an  attitude  of  calm  certitude  becomes, 
for  a  brief  while,  the  subject  of  a  dread  uncertainty.  We  are 
indeed  but  ill-prepared  to  understand  the  passing  incertitude  of 
One  who  had  on  all  other  occasions  possessed  a  perfect  realiza- 
tion of  Divine  Sonship,  for  we  are  the  victims  of  doubt  and  of 
an  obscured  and  intermittent  consciousness  of  our  filial  relation 
to  God.  But  Jesus,  even  in  Gethsemane,  never  doubted  His 
Father's  love :  He  was  amazed  at  being  enveloped  in  a  cloud  of 
mental  uncertainty ;  and  so  agonizing  was  this  travail  of  His 
Spirit,  that  He  was  constrained  to  supplicate  the  sympathy  of  His 
chosen  companions.  It  is  well  to  observe,  however,  that  the  three 
disciples  were  asked  to  watch  with  Him,  not  for  Him — ^not  to 
warn  Him  if  enemies  came,  but  to  communicate  warmth  of  kindly 
feeling  and  encouragement  in  His  lonely  trial.  The  Heart  of 
Jesus  was  tremulous  with  yearning  for  human  fellowship;  His 
love  for  men  was  thirsting  for  response.  Such  craving  for 
sympathy  was  human ;  but  our  difficulty  is  that  such  uncertainty 
of  His  Father's  Will  does  not  seem  Divine.  Even  here,  how- 
ever, there  must  be  caution  and  discrimination ;  it  must  not  be 
thought  that  Jesus  doubted  His  Father's  goodness ;  neither  must 
we  suppose  that  He  desired  to  alter  His  Father's  plan;  His 
trial  arose  from  the  uncertainty  whether  His  dark  depression 
was  demanded  by  the  Father's  Will.  He  did  not  waver  in  His 
trust  in  His  Heavenly  Father;  but  He  was  driven,  by  His 
mental  distress,  to  pray  for  deliverance  from  all  unnecessary 
suffering.  This  fact  makes  it  plain  how  clear  and  intense  was 
the  sorrow  He  was  bearing. 

'  Origen  against  Celsus,  bk.  ii.,  ch.  ix. 


464  The  Finished  Work 

5.  The  agony  of  Jesus,  however,  involved  other  emotions 
besides  uncertainty;  and  we  shall  not  err  if  we  ascribe  it  in  part 
to  vicarious  penitence.  The  sinlessness  which  we  might  suppose 
would  have  saved  Him  from  this  trial  became  His  supreme 
qualification  for  suffering  and  His  compulsion  to  oflFer  Himself 
as  a  sacrifice  to  the  Father.  As  Son  of  Man  He  shared  the 
emotions,  sufferings  and  even  sins  of  humanity.  Although  in- 
dividually pure,  He  had  so  completely  identified  Himself  with 
the  race  that  all  its  experiences  of  sin,  shame  and  separation 
from  God  passed  into  His  consciousness.  Sharing  so  passion- 
ately our  common  nature,  He  felt  at  His  heart's  centre  all  the 
thrills,  vibrations  and  shocks  of  human  experience.  The  ties 
of  blood  and  affinities  of  nature  are  too  subtle  for  our  coarse 
analysis;  we  feel  them  and  can  never  escape  them,  but  they 
are  too  mystically  elusive  for  intellectual  definition.  While  our 
differences  and  separations  lie  on  the  surface,  we  are  all  really 
bound  into  one  community,  and  as  a  race  we  form  one  organic 
whole.  As  true  humanity  is  developed  in  us  the  consciousness 
of  this  oneness  becomes  ever  more  accentuated.  A  merely  clever 
man  will  glory  in  his  individuality  and  distinction,  but  the  great 
soul  feels  its  oneness  with  all  men,  and  is  ever  conscious  of 
the  ebb  and  flow  of  those  tides  that  form  part  of  the  great  ocean 
of  universal  life.  The  true  note  of  personality  is  not  isolation, 
but  inclusion  and  comprehension.  The  recollection  of  this  truth 
of  solidarity,  which  is  felt  in  the  measure  of  the  development  and 
perfection  of  consciousness,  helps  us  to  understand  something 
of  what  was  passing  in  the  Soul  of  Jesus;  He  was  so  one  with 
men  that  the  reflex  of  all  their  sin  and  suffering  formed  an 
integral  part  of  His  experience;  and  this  was  not  merely  of 
the  nature  of  a  sympathetic  echo:  it  was  part  of  a  process  of 
self-identification.  As  at  His  baptism  He  reckoned  Himself 
one  with  His  sinful  brethren,  and  joined  in  their  confession 
and  repentance :  so,  in  Gethsemane,  He  felt  the  quivering  ache 
and  agonized  conscience  of  the  world's  sin.  As  He  struggled 
there  the  limits  of  individuahty  dissolved;  He  felt  Himself  to 
be  the  Soul  of  the  race;  He  was  our  humanity,  and  on  His 
heart  He  bore  the  burden  of  man's  separation  from  God.  This 
doubt,  this  shame,  this  separation,  He  struggled  to  overcome; 
and  His  conquest  was  won  by  absolute  surrender  to  the  Father's 
will,  so  that  He  offered  to  God  the  sacrifice  of  a  human  nature 
reconciled  to  God's  holy  purpose.     The  possibilities  of  such  a 


The  Hour  and  the  Cup  465 

solidarity  of  conscious  life  can  be  but  imperfectly  realized  by 
us;  and,  for  any  measure  of  understanding  concerning  Christ's 
self-identification  with  us,  imagination  must  be  allowed  to  carry 
us  beyond  our  personal  experiences.  We  must  conjure  up  the 
conception  of  perfect  sympathy; — that  is,  of  a  soul  without 
one  touch  of  selfishness  in  it — a  sinless  being.  But,  it  may  be 
asked,  how  can  a  sinless  being  understand  sin?  Yet  the  moral 
paradox  of  the  world  lies  just  here;  the  purer  we  become  the 
intenser  grows  our  penitence.  It  is  not  the  reprobate  who  feels 
his  sin  most,  but  the  reprobate's  saintly  mother.  Since,  there- 
fore, sin  hardens  the  heart  and  blinds  the  conscience,  the  intensest 
suffering  for  sin  will  be  felt  by  One  who  knew  no  sin.  Thus, 
in  the  agony  of  the  Garden  Jesus  realized  all  the  unalleviated 
horror  of  man's  guilt;  He  perceived  the  essence  of  sin  to  be 
rebellion  against  God — a  potent  cause  of  evil,  disease,  misery 
and  death.  This  was  the  horror  of  great  darkness  which  fell 
upon  His  soul ;  and  we  cannot  wonder  if,  as  He  drank  the 
bitter  cup  of  woe.  He  cried  out  to  His  Father  for  relief  from 
aught  of  sorrow  which  was  unnecessary. 

6.  Proceeding  reverently  and  cautiously  to  make  a  tentative 
'examination  of  our  Lord's  Passion,  we  soon  become  aware  of 
the  peril  which  awaits  all  analysis  of  the  soul.  The  subjects 
of  hysteria  may  suffer  a  mysterious  disintegration  of  person- 
ality, but  we  instinctively  feel  that  the  experience  of  Jesus 
was  charged  with  the  integrity  of  His  perfect  Person.  The 
apostolic  writers  instinctively  felt  this,  and  treated  all  the  scenes 
of  His  Passion  as  one  whole;  the  Garden  agony  could  not  be 
severed  from  His  acceptance  of  crucifixion,  and  these  were 
joined  to  His  resurrection ;  and  this  suffering  and  active  ministry 
was,  in  their  eyes,  a  sacrifice  for  the  sin  of  the  world.  The 
New  Testament  terminology  was  derived  from  Jewish  ritual; 
but  even  the  analogies  of  sacrificial  ceremonies  seem  hardly 
adequate  to  fathom  the  depths  of  Christ's  Passion.  And  yet 
the  terminology  of  sacrifice  has  entered  deeply  into  human 
speech,  and  has  so  much  inherent  reality  that  no  other  language 
seems  to  touch  the  central  ministry  of  the  suffering  of  Jesus. 
We  shall  not  err,  however,  if  we  seize  upon  the  idea  of  love  as 
lying  behind  the  sacrificial  obedience  of  the  Lord.  A  part,  at 
least,  of  His  agony  in  the  Garden  was  due  to  the  rejection  of 
His  love.    "  He  came  unto  His  own,  and  His  own  received  Him 


466  The  Finished  Work 

not."  And  even  now,  in  spite  of  centuries  of  reflection  and 
adoring  wonder,  neither  the  world  nor  the  Church  has  ade- 
quately owned  the  stupendous  marvel  of  love's  sacrifice.  We 
may  learn  to  appreciate  the  greater  from  the  less;  the  glowing, 
enthusiastic  fervour  of  Francis  Xavier  aids  the  imagination  in 
conceiving  the  tender  and  passionate  yearnings  that  must  have 
filled  the  heart  of  Jesus.  This  missionary,  who  himself  would 
have  confessed  that  he  followed  his  Lord's  example  at  a  dis- 
tance, said :  "  But  this  I  dare  say,  that  whatever  form  of  torture 
or  of  death  awaits  me,  I  am  ready  to  suffer  it  ten  thousand  times 
for  the  salvation  of  a  single  soul."  ^  We  may  use  this  con- 
fession as  a  stepping-stone  to  the  understanding  of  the  Master's 
more  perfect  love — its  intense  power  of  individualizing  every 
soul  and  its  magnitude  in  comprehending  all.  The  aroma  of 
His  love  fills  the  New  Testament;  His  philanthropy  had  no 
taint  of  defect,  and  to  it  was  conjoined  a  reason  that  had  no 
fault.  Probably  there  is,  in  all  the  world,  no  sorrow  like  that 
of  outraged  love.  During  His  earthly  ministry  Jesus  had  suc- 
ceeded in  permanently  attaching  to  Himself  a  little  band  of 
disciples  who  inadequately  responded  to  His  love  and  failed  to 
apprehend  His  aims;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  nation  which 
had  been  chosen  and  disciplined  by  Divine  Providence,  through 
its  chief  representatives  and  authorized  officials  deliberately  re- 
jected Jesus  with  callous  indifference  and  hostile  disdain  of 
His  Messianic  claim.  It  could  not  but  be,  then,  that  the  exquisite 
agony  of  this  rejection  should  seem  a  bitter  cup  to  drink,  and 
that  the  hour  should  seem  too  oppressive  to  be  borne. 

7.  Love  implies  also  a  great  capacity  for  suft'ering;  probably 
no  one  ever  lived  who  was  more  susceptible  than  Jesus  to  the 
woes  of  others.  In  His  Spirit  Jesus  was  conscious  of  all  the 
undertones  of  the  world's  sorrow ;  in  His  experience  the  agonies 
of  a  sinful  world  were  summed  up,  and  temporarily  it  dismayed 
even  Him.  No  film  of  selfishness  dimmed  His  vision ;  no 
callosity  of  emotion  deadened  the  smart  of  pain  in  His  heart. 
Were  we  to  apprehend  all  the  anguish  of  the  poor,  all  the 
agony  of  those  who  slowly  starve,  all  the  torments  endured 
by  wronged  women,  all  the  hurt  of  body  and  mind  endured  by 
innocent  children,  all  the  fury  of  remorse  inflicted  upon  the  souls 
of  men  who  awake  too  late  to  a  consciousness  of  their  guilt, 

'  Francis  Xavier. 


The  Hour  and  the  Cup  467 

and  could  there  pass  before  our  minds  all  the  sin  and  misery 
crowded  into  the  world's  experience  at  any  hour,  such  acute 
and  all-embracing  perception  would  assuredly  disturb  the  balance 
of  judgement  and  rob  us  of  our  sanity.  Now  it  really  seems  as 
if  Jesus  apprehended,  with  intellectual  grasp  and  emotional  sensi- 
bility, all  the  meaning  of  the  world's  severance  from  God.  There 
was  no  cloud  upon  His  conscience,  no  impenetrable  scale  cover- 
ing His  heart:  hence,  in  the  hour  of  His  desolation.  He  was 
shaken  and  dismayed.  But  when  the  first  paroxysm  of  grief 
had  broken,  and  He  had  steadied  His  soul  with  prayer,  Jesus 
of  His  own  free-will  took  up  the  burden  of  the  world's  sin  and 
shame,  and  offered  His  own  perfect  obedience  to  the  Heavenly 
Father  as  a  sacrifice  for  the  reconciliation  of  humanity.  As 
we  have  seen,  by  His  oneness  with  every  man ;  by  His  self- 
identification  with  the  race  in  mighty  sympathy,  and  by  a  mystic 
community  in  the  realm  of  personal  spirits,  Jesus  felt  as  though 
all  souls,  all  wills,  all  consciences,  were  concentrated  in  His  own 
Spirit,  so  that  He  suffered  and  acted  for  all.  And  the  task 
which  was  thus  laid  upon  Him  was  to  draw  the  humanity  He 
represented  into  moral  harmony  with  the  Divine  Will  of  un- 
changing Righteousness.  Such  a  sacrifice  as  this  was  not  merely 
a  negative  act  of  renunciation;  it  was  a  great  positive  projection 
of  His  personal  force  against  evil.  The  hour  in  which  this 
sacrifice  culminated  was  dark,  and  the  cup  which  held  this 
draught  of  sorrow  was  bitter;  but  He  drained  it  to  the  dregs, 
saying :  "  Father,  Thy  will  be  done." 

8.  When  the  first  tumultuous  uprising  of  His  sorrow  had 
subsided,  Jesus  came  back  to  the  three  disciples,  and  finding 
them  heavy  with  sleep,  He  said  to  Simon :  "  Sleepest  thou  ? 
Hadst  thou  not  strength  to  watch  one  hour?  Watch  and  pray, 
that  ye  may  not  come  into  temptation.  The  Spirit  is  willing, 
but  the  flesh  is  weak."  This  exquisite  blending  of  reproach  and 
apology  breathes  the  fine  sensibility  and  magnanimity  of  our 
Lord,  and  carries  in  its  tone  the  testimony  of  its  historicity. 
One  wonders  that  those  men  could  sleep  in  that  hour,  and 
suspects  that  they  did  not  even  realize  the  imminence  of 
death.  Puzzling  though  it  is  to  us,  the  very  incoherence  between 
Christ's  reiterated  warnings  of  the  coming  doom,  and  the  un- 
expectant  mood  of  those  who  heard,  can  belong  only  to  the  realm 
of  historic  fact.     Fancy  would  either  have  omitted  the  frequent 


468  The  Finished  Work 

forecasts  of  the  Cross,  or  it  would  surely  have  Invented  some 
correspondence  in  the  attitude  of  the  disciples.  Their  dulness 
of  comprehension,  though  at  times  it  has  seemed  incredible,  can 
be  explained  by  the  obsession  of  their  minds  by  the  material 
Messianism  of  their  age.  Ideas  of  condemnation  and  death, 
however  often  repeated,  were  too  utterly  discordant  with  popular 
hopes  and  beliefs  to  gain  any  intelligible  place  in  their  thought; 
therefore,  these  disciples  moved  forward  to  the  end,  hoping 
against  hope  that  their  Lord  would  soon  restore  the  Kingdom 
to  Israel.  A  second  and  a  third  time  Jesus  returned  to  His 
disciples,  and  seemed  surprised  at  their  persistent  drowsiness, 
exclaiming,  "Ye  still  sleep  and  rest!"  Then  came  an  interrup- 
tion which  can  be  understood  only  on  the  supposition  that  Jesus 
had  received  some  intimation  of  Judas's  agreement  with  the 
chief  priests  to  betray  Him  for  so  much  silver.  It  is  possible 
that  Jesus  had  learned  of  this  thing  by  some  kind  of  prophetic 
intuition ;  and  yet  He  could  scarce  credit  such  baseness  in  the 
man  He  had  called  His  friend.  But  at  the  instant  when  He 
was  commenting  upon  the  continued  sleep,  He  caught  the  murmur 
of  voices  and  tramp  of  many  feet;  then  looking  up.  He  saw  the 
flash  of  torches  through  the  trees ;  at  once  His  premonition  about 
Judas  and  the  bribe  was  confirmed,  and  in  amazed  and  indignant 
sorrow  He  made  the  ejaculation,  "  he  did  receive  it!  "  ^  Turning 
at  once  to  the  disciples,  Jesus  said :  "  The  hour  has  come !  Be- 
hold the  Son  of  Man  is  betrayed  into  the  hands  of  sinners. 
Rise :  let  us  go.    Behold,  My  betrayer  is  near !  " 

"  Into  the  woods  my  Master  went 
Clean  forspent,  forspent; 
Into  the  woods  my  Master  came 
Forspent  with  love  and  shame. 
But  the  olives  they  were  not  blind  to  Him; 
The  little  grey  leaves  were  kind  to  Him; 
The  thorn-tree  had  a  mind  to  Him 
When  into  the  woods  He  came. 

"  Out  of  the  woods  my  Master  went, 
And  He  was  well-content ; 

*In  The  Expositor.  Dec.  1905,  J.  De  Zwaan  examines  the  uses  of  the 
word  airix^t  and  concludes — (a.)  it  is  never  used  impersonally:  (/?)  it 
has  nowhere  the  meaning:  suiHcit,  it  is  enough:  (7)  inztxciv  nearjy  al- 
ways means  to  have  received,  usually  in  a  commercial  sense ;  ( <J )  ankx^t 
has  no  other  sense  than  that  which  is  proper  to  the  third  pers.  sing,  of 
the  pres.  ind.  of  the  aforesaid  verb.  The  use  of  this  word  here  is  another 
instance  of  St.  Mark's  peculiar  originality  and  keen  historical  sense." 


The  Hour  and  the  Cup  469 

Out  of  the  woods  my  Master  came, 

Content  with  death  and  shame. 

When   death  and   shame  would  woo  Him   last ; 

From  under  the  trees  they  drew  Him  last, 

'Twas  on  a  tree  they  slew  Him  last. 

When  out  of  the  woods  He  came."  ^ 

9.  The  details  of  the  arrest  of  Jesus  are  somewhat  confused, 
and  in  consequence  only  the  main  facts  of  this  hurried  tragedy 
can  be  known  with  certainty.  With  a  shepherd's  true  instinct, 
Jesus  stepped  ahead  of  His  little  band  and  advanced  to  meet  His 
enemies,  while  Judas,  guiding  a  mingled  throng,  stepped  forth 
and  saluted  our  Lord  with  a  kiss.  The  sacrament  of  love  was 
made  a  token  for  treachery.  The  reply  of  Jesus  is  differently 
reported.  One  evangelist  makes  Him  exclaim,  "  Comrade,  for 
what  work  you  are  come !  "  ^  While  St.  Luke  records  the  words, 
"Judas,  betrayest  thou  the  Son  of  Man  with  a  kiss?"  This 
third  evangelist  also  states  that  the  chief  priests,  elders  and  com- 
manders (police)  of  the  temple  were  there;  and  St.  John  gives 
us  to  understand  that  a  cohort  of  Roman  soldiers  accompanied 
them.  So  manifest,  however,  was  the  moral  supremacy  of  Jesus 
at  this  crisis,  that  those  who  had  pressed  forward  to  arrest  Him 
now  fell  back  in  confusion.  When  some  of  them  recovered  from 
their  momentary  panic  and  laid  hands  on  Jesus,  Simon  drew 
forth  a  sword  and  smote  Malchus,  the  servant  of  the  high-priest : 
the  ill-aimed  blow  only  cut  off  the  man's  ear.  St.  Matthew 
accords  with  St.  John  in  representing  Jesus  as  full  of  self- 
possession  and  ready  to  make  a  voluntary  surrender.  "  Put  back 
thy  sword  into  its  place,"  He  said.  "  For  all  those  who  take 
the  sword  shall  perish  with  the  sword.  Or,  thinkest  thou  that 
I  cannot  appeal  to  My  Father,  and  He  will  provide  Me  now 
with  more  than  twelve  legions  of  angels?  How  then  shall  the 
scriptures  be  fulfilled,  that  so  it  must  come  to  pass  ?  "  St.  Luke 
alone  makes  the  characteristic  addition  that  Jesus  immediately 
healed  the  man's  wounded  ear;  and  if  this  were  so  it  would 
explain  how  it  was  that  no  mention  of  Simon's  act  of  violence 
was  charged  against  Him  at  His  trial.  It  should  be  noted,  how- 
ever, that  Dr.  E.  A.  Abbot  regards  this  Lucan  detail  as  an 
instance  of  substitution  through  misunderstanding  of  the  rebuke 
to  Peter  and  the  command  to  restore  the  sword  to  its  place;  he 
surmises  that  St.  Luke  wrongly  applied  some  ambiguous  word  in 

'  Sidney  Lanier. 

"Fritzsche  takes  6  =  olw.    {Exp.  Gk.  Test,  Matt.  xxvi.  49.) 


470  The  Finished  Work 

the  original  tradition  to  the  ear  instead  of  applying  it  to  the 
sword.^  Then  all  the  hopes  and  courage  of  the  disciples  oozed 
away,  and  they  all  forsook  Him  and  fled.  In  St.  Mark's  gospel 
is  found  one  other  little  incident  in  this  arrest  which  may  indeed 
be  "  the  monogram  of  the  painter  in  the  dark  corner  of  the 
picture."  Some  young  man  had  been  disturbed  by  a  warning 
that  Jesus  was  in  danger ;  rising  hurriedly  from  his  couch  he 
had  thrown  a  linen  cloth  around  his  person  and  gone  out.  If  he 
proposed  communicating  with  Jesus  he  was  too  late  and  reached 
the  Garden  only  in  time  to  see  the  arrest  completed.  Seeing 
the  youth  some  of  the  mob  tried  to  lay  hold  upon  him,  but  he, 
slipping  off  his  only  covering,  escaped  into  the  darkness.  One 
wonders  whether  we  may  identify  this  unnamed  youth  with 
Mark  the  evangelist, — at  whose  house  in  the  city,  it  may  be, 
Jesus  had  supped  a  few  hours  previously, — if  so  we  are  brought 
into  closest  possible  contact  with  actual  scenes  and  their  first- 
hand witnesses.  If  this  identification  must  be  left  undecided, 
still  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  course  of  events  described  in 
this  chapter  can  be  regarded  as  historically  reliable.  After  His 
Agony  Jesus  voluntarily  accepted  all  the  consequences  of  His 
mental  surrender  to  the  Father's  holy  will:  He  drank  the  cup 
and  endured  the  hour. 

*  Class.  Rev.,  December,  1893,  p.  443.    Plummet's  Luke,  p.  545. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  WAY  OF  THE  CROSS 

I.  The  poet-philosopher  of  ancient  Greece  said,  "  Philosophy 
begins  in  wonder.  He  was  not  a  bad  genealogist  who  said  that 
Iris  is  the  child  of  Thaumas."^  Truth,  the  messenger  of  the 
gods,  "that  passes  to  and  fro  between  heaven  and  earth  and 
brings  them  into  communion,"  is  the  child  of  Wonder.  We  have 
given  no  meagre  part  to  the  play  of  wholesome  criticism  in  the 
foregoing  study  of  the  Ministry  of  Jesus ;  but,  as  we  have  entered 
into  the  mysterious  sanctuary  of  sorrow,  a  sense  of  awe,  of 
reverence,  has  surged  up  in  our  minds;  and,  while  prepared  to 
acknowledge  all  the  difficulties  of  the  text,  we  are  forced  to 
contemplate  the  Cross  with  a  great  wonder.  Nothing  stirs  so 
much  in  us  as  the  Cross  does—"  the  burden  of  the  mystery 

"  Of  all  this  unintelligible  world." 
One  of  the  new  "  Oxyrhynchus  "  sayings  run  thus :  "  Jesus  saith, 
Let  not  him  who  seeks  the  Father  cease  until  he  find  Him ;  and 
havincr  found  Him,  let  hinr-be  amazed;  and  being  amazed  he  shall 
reign  and  reigning  shall  rest."  ^  Akin  to  this  is  the  logion  pre- 
served by  Clement  of  Alexandria,  also  omitted  from  the  Gospels, 
"  He  that  wonders  shall  reign."  ^  This  must,  therefore,  be  the 
dominant  mood  or  key-thought,  as  we  seek  to  gam  a  true  im- 
pression of  the  last  grand  event  of  our  Lord's  earthly  mmistry. 
We  dare  not  let  the  exacting  spirit  of  criticism  slay  the  soul's 
wonder,  which  is  the  Mother  of  true  thought. 

2.  To  His  enemies,  who  had  come  out  in  such  force,  Jesus 
said  •  "  This  is  your  hour  and  the  power  of  darkness."  Unre- 
strained by  aught  of  gentleness  or  of  gratitude,  men  bound  Him 
as  though  He  were  a  dangerous  prisoner,  little  recking  that  they 
would  have  had  no  power  over  Him  had  not  His  Heavenly 
Father  given  Him  into  their  hands.  St.  John  states  that  Jesus 
was  led  away  first  to  the  father-in-law  of  Caiaphas,  the  high- 

^  Plato.  Thea:t,  ISS.  Jowett.  ^        '  Oxyrhynchus  Logia. 

•  Stromatets,  v.  4-  §  97- 

471 


472  The  Finished  Work 

priest,  whose  name  was  Annas.  This  man  had  been  the  high- 
priest  from  A.D.  7  till  a.d.  14,  and  was  followed  by  five  sons, 
who  wore  the  mitre  in  succession.  It  may  have  been  that  this 
able  yet  unscrupulous  man  was  living  under  his  son-in-law's  roof ; 
and,  if  this  were  so,  some  of  the  obscurities  of  the  Gospels  would 
vanish.  Annas  took  the  occasion  to  ask  the  prisoner  some  pre- 
liminary questions  before  he  led  the  way  to  Caiaphas,  who  was 
to  preside  over  the  subsequent  inquiry.  As  though  he  would 
fain  gauge  the  actual  strength  of  the  movement  Jesus  had  begun, 
the  high-priest  then  asked  his  prisoner  about  His  teaching  and 
His  disciples,  marvelling  the  while  that  this  Galilean  prophet  had 
impressed  Himself  so  deeply  upon  the  popular  imagination. 
Jesus  appealed  to  the  memories  of  those  who  had  heard  His  public 
teaching,  and  refused  to  be  inveigled  into  futile  controversies;  He 
might  have  had  Socrates'  defence  in  His  mind:  "If  anyone  says 
that  he  has  learned  or  heard  anything  from  me  in  private  which 
all  the  world  has  not  heard,  let  me  tell  you  that  he  is  lying."  ^ 
Irritated  by  His  dauntless  bearing  one  of  the  sycophantic  crew 
smote  Jesus,  and  exclaimed,  "  Answerest  Thou  the  high-priest 
so?"  Exquisitely  sensitive  to  every  touch  of  inhumanity, 
whether  shown  toward  others  or  toward  Himself,  Jesus  remon- 
strated, "  If  I  have  spoken  wrongly,  give  evidence  of  wrong;  but 
if  rightly,  why  beat  me  ?  " 

3.  The  priests,  elders  and  scribes  of  the  Sanhedrim  were 
summoned  at  once,  that  Jesus  might  be  subjected  to  a  form  of 
trial;  although  really,  the  majority  of  them  had  prejudged  the 
case,  and  were  now  desirous  only  of  getting  such  evidence  as 
would  justify  a  sentence  of  death.  His  enemies,  however,  found 
but  little  wherewith  they  might  accuse  Him.  It  might  have  been 
expected  that  His  frequent  violations  of  the  Sabbath,  which  had 
brought  about  the  first  breach  between  the  hierarchy  and  Jesus, 
would  have  been  charged  against  Him ;  that  no  such  accusa- 
tion appears  in  the  record  can  be  explained  by  the  supposition 
that  those  who  directed  the  trial  feared  lest  any  recollection  of 
His  Sabbath  miracles  should  evoke  too  much  sympathy.  How 
pure,  then,  must  have  been  that  life,  since  the  most  damaging 
testimony  against  Him  was  that  He  had  spoken  ambiguous  words 
against  the  temple :  "  I  will  break  down  this  sanctuary  made  with 
hands,  and  after  three  days  I  will  build  another  not  made  with 

^Apology,  33- 


The  Way  of  the  Cross  473 

hands."  ^  Edged  with  malevolence  though  it  was,  such  evidence 
lacked  cogency,  and  proved  unequal  to  the  sentence  demanded.'' 
Baffled  by  this  surprising  lack  of  testimony,  the  high-priest  for- 
got the  reserve  due  to  the  dignity  of  his  office,  and,  advancing  into 
the  semicircle  of  counsellors,  tried  to  entangle  Jesus  into  some 
self-committing  statement  about  His  Messiahship.  The  uncon- 
cealed animus  of  His  judges  made  Jesus  indignantly  silent. 
Vexed  at  this  muteness,  and  fearing  that  the  prisoner  might  be 
exonerated,  Caiaphas,  who  looked  upon  Jesus  as  an  enemy  of  the 
state,  enjoined  Him  upon  oath  to  answer  if  He  were  the  Messiah. 
The  whole  Ministry  of  Jesus  had  made  this  question  inevitable, 
and  although  it  had  been  suppressed  until  now,  it  underlay  the 
thought  of  every  one  of  those  judges.  Silence  now  might  be 
taken  as  a  renunciation  of  His  claim,  and  even  though  He  was 
aware  that  His  listeners  would  interpret  the  title  of  Messiah  very 
differently  from  Himself,  He  could  not  allow  them  to  imagine 
that  He  renounced  it ;  therefore.  He  answered,  "  I  am ;  and  you 
shall  see  the  Son  of  Man  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Power 
and  coming  in  the  clouds  of  the  sky."  In  these  apocalyptic  terms, 
Jesus  in  the  hour  of  His  trial  breathed  the  assurance  of  His 
ultimate  triumph,  and  showed  that  He  was  looking  beyond  death 
to  some  glorious  parousia,  such  as  the  ancient  prophets  had  fore- 
told. There  are  critics  who  will  treat  these  words  as  the  evidence 
of  illusions  cherished  by  the  Man  of  Nazareth ;  while  some  there 
are,  on  the  other  hand,  who  believe  that  the  balanced  and  lucid 
mind  of  Jesus  was  fed  by  a  spirit  of  prophecy.  Caiaphas,  al- 
though it  was  the  very  utterance  he  had  wished  for,  treated  such 
self-attesting  words  as  direst  blasphemy  or  madness,  and  with 
simulated  or  real  horror,  rent  his  priestly  vestments,  exclaiming, 
"  What  further  witnesses  do  we  need  ?  "  "  And  they  all  con- 
demned Him  to  the  doom  of  death."  Then  they  began  to  heap 
contumely  upon  Him,  as  though  He  were  some  wretched  pretender ; 
"  even  the  officers  received  Him  with  slaps  of  the  open  hand." 
That  even  menials  should  have  been  permitted  to  treat  Jesus  with 
such  brutal  indignities,  shows  that  the  hierarchy  desired  to  strip 
Him  of  every  vestige  of  honour  by  the  rude  instrument  of  public 
ridicule.  The  Sanhedrim  condemned  Jesus  as  deserving  of 
death,  because  He  claimed  to  be  the  Messiah ;  ignoring  that  this 
title  on  His  lips  was  Spiritual  rather  than  Temporal,  Human  and 

^Matt.  omits  rbv  x^tpoifoivvrov  and  aXTiov  axeipoiroi^ov,  xxvi.  6l. 
2 /cat  laai  al  fiarvpiai  ovk  rjaav,  Mark  xiv.  S6. 


474  The  Finished  Work 

not  merely  National,  and  that  it  was  a  claim  to  the  over-lordship 
of  all  the  world. 

4.  While  our  Lord  was  being  subjected  to  this  ordeal,  His 
disciple,  Simon,  was  also  undergoing  the  testing  that  the  Master 
had  forewarned.  St.  John's  account  of  this  incident  might  lead 
us  to  imagine  that  the  denial  took  place  during  the  examination 
of  Jesus  by  Annas,  while  the  Synoptists  place  it  in  the  palace 
of  Caiaphas.  This  discrepancy  would  be  explained  by  adopting 
the  suggestion  we  have  made  that  Annas  may  have  been  stay- 
ing with  his  son-in-law.  Concerning  the  fact  of  Simon's  denial, 
there  is  no  uncertainty ;  for  it  is  not  the  kind  of  thing  that  the 
Primitive  Church  would  invent.  Whether  Simon  denied  his  Lord 
once  or  thrice;  whether  the  same  serving-maid  repeated  her 
accusing  inquiry,  or  two  distinct  persons  detected  the  marks  of 
his  Galilean  accent;  whether  the  cock  crew  once  or  twice, — 
the  fact  remains  sure  that  this  impetuous  fisherman,  who  a  few 
hours  earlier  had  avowed  His  readiness  to  die  for  His  Master, 
now  under  the  stress  of  fear  even  denied  acquaintance  with 
Him.  But  then,  how  came  Simon  within  the  precincts  of  the 
high-priest's  house?  St.  Mark  plainly  asserts  that  at  the  arrest 
the  disciples  "forsook  Him  (Jesus)  and  fled";  but  the  fourth 
evangeUst  states  that  Simon  "  was  following  Jesus  "  with  another 
disciple,  and  this  unnamed  companion  was  "  known  unto  the 
high-priest."  Professor  Burkitt  makes  a  curious  suggestion  that 
this  second  disciple  may  be  identified  with  the  author  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  but  not  with  Zebedee's  son ;  that  he  was  the  John 
"  who  had  been  a  priest  and  worn  the  high-priest's  mitre,"  but 
had  been  converted  from  Sadduceism  to  follow  Jesus.^  What- 
ever acceptance  this  novel  theory  may  find,  we  must  go  the  length 
of  recognizing  that  the  unnamed  disciple  was  a  person  of  suffi- 
cient influence  to  obtain  entrance  for  himself  and  Simon  into  the 
palace  of  the  high-priest.  There  was  considerable  daring  in 
venturing  among  these  enemies  of  Jesus  after  his  assault  upon 
Malchus — more,  in  fact,  than  Simon  could  maintain.  The  night 
was  cold,  and  as  he  stood  by  the  fire  a  serving-maid  accosted  him 
as  a  disciple  of  Jesus.  A  sudden  terror  smote  on  Simon's  heart, 
and  instantly  words  of  denial  escaped  him.  St.  John  adds  that 
another,  a  kinsman  of  Malchus,  came  a  little  later  and  repeated 
the  interrogation.     St.  Luke  suppresses  all  mention  of  Simon's 

*  The  Gospel  History  and  its  Transmission,  p.  248. 


The  Way  of  the  Cross  475 

oaths ;  but  it  is  too  plain  that  the  denial  became  more  vehement 
when 'repeated.  Then  a  cock  crew,  or  the  hour  of  the  cock- 
crow was  signalled,  and  at  that  moment  Jesus  turned  as  He 
stood  in  the  higher  part  of  the  court  and  looked  at  Simon.  In- 
stantly the  disloyal  disciple  repented  of  his  sin,  and  going  out 
wept  bitterly.  Such  a  sudden,  undesigned  fall  as  this  cannot  be 
compared  with  the  treachery  of  Judas ;  at  the  same  time  it  deep- 
ened the  wounds  of  Jesus,  made  by  the  friends  of  His  own 
household.  The  crudest  blow  is  love's  denial  by  someone 
beloved. 

5.     The  Sanhedrim,  it  is  said,'  was  deprived  of  the  prerogative 
of  deciding  cases  of  great  importance ;  but  this  in  nowise  contra- 
dicts the  representation  of  the  Gospels  that  the  counsellors  made 
a  preliminary  investigation  to  prepare  to  lay  the  matter  before  the 
Roman  procurator.  Irregular  and  legally  ineffectual  as  this  mid- 
night trial  was,  it  served  to  give  the  Sanhedrists  their  cue  in 
appealing  to  Pilate.     How  long  the  interval  proved  before  the 
praetorium  (i.e.  the  governor's  tent)  was  open,  we  do  not  know; 
nor  are  we  sure  whether  it  was  in  Herod's  palace  or  in  the 
fortress  of  Antonia.     Obscure  as  are  the  allusions  to  time,  we 
ought    not    to    pass    unnoticed    the    statement    that    the    chief 
priests  refrained  from  going  into  the  praetorium,  lest  they  should 
be  ceremonially  defiled  and  debarred  from  eating  the  Paschal 
Lamb.     It  confirms  our  belief  that  the  Supper  of  the  previous 
evening  was  an  anticipatory  Pascha.    The  Sanhedrists  had  hoped 
that  Pilate  might  content  himself  with  confirming  the  death  sen- 
tence upon  Jesus  on  the  strength  of  their  examination  of  Him; 
but  the  feeling  for  justice,  so  natural  to  a  Roman  judge,  may 
have  been  reinforced  in  this  case  by  latent  resentment  at  the 
arrogance  of  those  Jewish  priests.     Despite  all  the  ridicule  that 
has  been  poured  upon  the  notion  that  Pilate  played  the  part  of 
a  peripatetic  judge,  we  find  nothing  improbable  in  the  procurator's 
decision  to  examine  Jesus  in  private.     St.  Luke  specifies  three 

^  Edersheim,  Life  and  Times  of  Jesus  the  Messiah:  Diet,  of  the  Bible, 

*^Eders°heim  vol.  i.,  p.  128,  "The  Sanhedrin  did  exist  during  his 
(Herod's)  reign,  though  it  must  have  been  shorn  of  all  real  power,  and 
its  activity  confined  to  ecclesiastical,  or  semi-ecclesiastical,  causes,  i'-  23S, 
"After  the  accession  of  Herod  the  Sanhedrin  became  a  shadow  of  it- 
self"  Vol  ii.,  p.  556,  "The  Sanhedrin  would  be  accorded  full  jurisdic- 
tion in  inferior  and  in  religious  matters,  with  the  greatest  show,  but 
with  the  least  amount  of  real  rule,  or  of  superior  authority. 


476  The  Finished  Work 

definite  accusations  made  before  Pilate  against  Jesus;  He  was 
charged  with  seditious  agitation,  with  forbidding  tribute  to 
Caesar,  and  with  claiming  to  be  King  of  the  Jews.  The  self- 
evident  discrepancy  between  the  serious  accusations  of  treason 
and  the  modesty  of  the  prisoner's  bearing  prompted  Pilate  to  ask 
ironically,  "  Art  thou  the  King  of  the  Jews?  "  It  must  have  occa- 
sioned some  astonishment  in  the  governor's  mind  when,  instead  of 
giving  a  direct  reply,  Jesus  inquired  if  he  asked  with  any  per- 
sonal interest  in  His  doctrine,  or  whether  he  only  repeated  what 
others  had  told  him.  Even  at  that  trying  moment  there  appears 
a  sublime  enthusiasm  in  Jesus,  so  that  the  appearance  of  honesty 
in  His  Roman  judge  at  once  detached  His  attention  from  His  own 
desperate  case  to  His  dominant  ambition  to  advance  the  Kingdom 
of  Truth.  Pilate  scornfully  answered  that  he  was  no  Jew,  but 
that  he  desired  to  know  of  what  matter  Jesus  had  been  guilty. 
Then,  lifted  above  all  thought  of  self-preservation,  the  prisoner 
affirmed  His  Kingship  and  explained  it :  "  My  reign  is  not  of  this 
world;  were  My  reign  of  this  world,  My  officers  would  have 
fought  to  prevent  Me  from  being  delivered  to  the  Jews ;  but  My 
realm  is  not  from  hence."  ^  Pilate  was  amazed  at  the  prisoner's 
claim  and  said,  "  So  Thou  art  a  king !  "  *'  Certainly,"  said  Jesus, 
"  I  am  a  king.  For  this  end  have  I  been  born,  and  for  this  end 
have  I  come  into  the  world,  to  bear  witness  to  the  truth.  Every- 
one who  is  of  the  truth  hears  My  voice."  Whatever  be  the  ulti- 
mate judgement  upon  these  words,  it  can  hardly  be  gainsaid  that 
the  chief  offence  of  Jesus  which  brought  Him  to  His  end  was  the 
unretracted  claim  to  be  the  Messianic  King.  The  words,  whether 
spoken  by  Jesus,  or  whether  they  simply  grew  out  of  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  Primitive  Church,  fit  in  with  the  calm  dignity 
and  courage  of  the  Master.  Never  before  or  since  have  egoism 
so  immense  and  lowliness  so  true  blended  thus  strangely.  Think- 
ing that  He  was  some  deluded  dreamer  or  enthusiastic  Stoic, 
Pilate  asked  sceptically  and  impatiently,  "  Truth !  What  is 
truth  ?  "  Without  waiting  for  an  answer,  he  went  forth  to  the 
accusers  with  the  memorable  verdict :  "  I  find  nothing  criminal  in 
this  man !  "  The  priests  angrily  retorted  that  Jesus  had  stirred 
up  the  people  throughout  the  land  from  Galilee  unto  Jerusalem. 
This  suggested  to  Pilate  a  way  out  of  the  embroglio;  he  would 
send  the  Prisoner  to  Herod  to  be  tried.     Although  the  trial 

*  Dr.  Dods,  hrex^ev,  as  though  He  "  has  other  worlds  in  view." 


The  Way  of  the  Cross  477 

before  Herod  has  been  much  doubted,  still,  as  Schleiermacher  ^ 
has  said,  "  the  transaction  is  too  circumstantially  detailed  to  admit 
a  doubt;  and  our  reporter  seems  to  have  an  acquaintance  in  the 
house  of  Herod  who  supplied  Him  with  this  fact,  as  John  seems 
to  have  had  in  the  house  of  Annas."  This  informant  may  have 
been  Joanna,  the  wife  of  Chuza.  The  tetrarch,  it  appears,  had 
lost  his  earlier  fear  that  Jesus  was  John  returned  to  life,  and 
was  flattered  by  Pilate's  courtesy,  while  he  thought  that  perhaps 
the  Prisoner  might  perform  some  miracle  before  him.  Jesus 
knew  the  character  of  Herod,  and  refused  to  say  anything.  Such 
taciturnity  seemed  to  Herod  a  proof  that  Jesus  had  no  excep- 
tional power,  but  was  merely  some  poor  ignorant  fanatic,  who 
had  deceived  Himself  and  the  people;  therefore  he  ordered  that 
He  should  be  arrayed  in  bright  raiment  like  some  stage-king,  and 
taken  back  to  Pilate  with  an  ingratiating  compliment. 

6.  Paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  Jesus  was  really  the  Judge 
of  all  who  were  at  that  trial ;  His  character  was  a  moral  touch- 
stone ;  in  His  white  light  the  malignity  and  murderous  fury  of  the 
priests  and  Pharisees  could  not  be  hidden ;  and  while  the  pusil- 
lanimity of  Pilate  could  not  withstand  their  resoluteness,  the 
very  proximity  of  Jesus  awakened  something  like  conscience  and 
solicitude  in  the  Roman  Judge.  Someone  reminded  him  of  the 
Paschal  custom  of  setting  a  prisoner  at  liberty ;  and  Pilate,  reiter- 
ating that  Jesus  had  done  naught  to  deserve  death,  proposed  to 
chastise  Him  and  let  Him  go.  The  Jews,  however,  preferred 
that  a  murderer  should  be  emancipated,  and  shouted  of  Jesus, 
*'  Away  with  Him !  Release  Bar- Abbas  for  us !  "  And,  to 
Pilate's  remonstrance,  gave  back  the  deafening  shout,  "  Crucify ! 
Crucify  Him !  "  "  We  have  a  law,"  they  said,  "  and  by  the  law 
He  ought  to  die,  because  He  made  Himself  out  to  be  God's  Son." 
There  was  not  only  a  vein  of  superstition  in  Pilate,  but  also  more 
than  a  touch  of  cowardice;  and,  seeing  this,  Jesus  remained 
silent  when  he  came  again  to  renew  his  inquiries.  When  Pilate 
vaunted  his  power  either  to  release  Him  or  to  condemn,  Jesus 
simply  reminded  him  that  this  was  a  trust  from  above,  and  added, 
as  though  He  would  exculpate  His  judge,  that  Caiaphas,  who  was 
the  leader  of  the  Sanhedrim  and  had  delivered  Him  to  the 
Roman  tribunal,  was  guilty  of  the  greater  sin.  Interpreting  the 
words  of  Jesus  in  this  way,  it  appears  that  He  pitied  Pilate  and 
^ St.  Luke  (Eng.  trans.),  p.  304. 


478  The  Finished  Work 

credited  tfie  high-priest  with  the  crime  of  using  even  the  power 
of  Rome  as  an  instrument  of  religious  apostasy.  Pilate's  per- 
plexity was  increased  by  a  superstitious  message  from  his  wife: 
"  Have  nothing  to  do  with  that  just  Man,  for  I  have  suffered  to- 
day many  things  through  Him  in  a  dream."  But  the  judge's 
vacillations  ended  in  surrender;  for  those  obstinate  Jews  threat- 
ened him  with  the  taunt  that,  if  he  released  Jesus  he  would  not 
be  Caesar's  friend ;  and  Pilate  felt  afraid  to  incur  the  displeasure 
of  his  gloomy,  tyrannical  master.  Having  weakly  yielded  against 
his  better  judgement,  St.  Matthew  says  that  He  disclaimed  all 
responsibility  by  symbolically  washing  his  hands  and  exclaiming, 
"  I  am  innocent  of  the  blood  of  this  just  man :  see  you  to  it." 

7.  The  next  step  in  that  sorrowful  drama  was  the  handing 
over  of  Jesus  to  the  Roman  soldiers ;  and  those  rough  men  are 
represented  as  indulging  in  brutal  merriment  over  this  Jewish 
King,  throwing  over  Him  the  robes  of  mock  royalty — the  same 
garment,  perhaps,  in  which  Herod  had  sent  Him  back  to  Pilate.^ 
Then,  having  scourged  their  Prisoner,  they  crowned  Him  with 
plaited  thorns  and  gave  Him  a  reed  for  a  sceptre;  they  also  spat 
upon  Him  and  kept  smiting  Him  on  the  head.  As  He  was  brought 
forth  again,  St.  John  represents  Pilate  as  making  a  final  appeal 
in  words  which  mean  so  much  more  than  the  speaker  intended, 
"  Behold  the  Man !  "  To  the  Roman  judge  it  seemed  the  acme  of 
absurdity  to  cherish  fears  of  such  a  helpless  victim ;  surely,  such 
an  one  could  do  naught  to  injure  the  state.  The  flagellation 
may  have  taken  place  before  the  second  examination  by  Pilate, 
as  St.  John  states;  but  the  order  of  events  is  confused  in  the 
Gospels.  The  governor's  hope  to  get  Jesus  off  was  given  up; 
from  the  judgement-seat  at  the  place  of  the  tesselated  pavement, 
he  finally  pronounced  the  sentence  of  Crucifixion.  The  fourth 
evangelist  looked  upon  this  victory  of  Christ's  foes  as  the  sur- 
render of  all  national  hopes, — the  final  abandonment  of  the  very 
vestiges  of  political  liberty.  And  we,  who  belong  not  to  the 
Israel  after  the  flesh,  see  in  this  defeat  of  justice, — the  doom  of  the 
Son  of  Man, — the  culminating  instance  of  an  oft-repeated  tragedy 
of  the  overthrow  of  the  cause  of  humanity  by  injustice,  envy, 
greed  and  armed  selfishness.  And  yet  they  could  not  have 
bound  Him  with  cords,  had  He  Himself  not  first  bound  His  heart 
and  hands  with  love.    Through  all  we  discern  the  autonomy  of  a 

*  Mark,  irop^pav,  purple  garment ;  Matt.,  x^ofiida  KoiaiivTpi,  scarlet  robe. 


The  Way  of  the  Cross  479 

true  Priest,  as  well  as  the  fitness  of  the  victim  of  sacrifice: 
Passus  quia  Ipse  voluit. 

8.    The  gospel  of  St.  John  states  that  Jesus  was  led  out  to 
Golgotha  bearing  His  own  Cross ;  but  the  earlier  Gospels  inform 
us  that  Jesus  was  exhausted  and  fell  under  the  weight  of  the 
heavy  beam,  and  that  the  Cyrenian  Simon  ^  was  impressed  into 
the  service  of  carrying  the  burden  for  Jesus.     St.  Luke  adds, 
further,  that  in  the  procession  were  also  two  criminals  who  were 
being  led  out   for  execution.     The   several   evangehsts   record, 
with  verbal  variations,  how  that  on  the  tablet  or  beam  was  in- 
scribed the  title  which  summed  up  the  accusation  against  Jesus, 
"The  King  of  the  Jews."     Angry  at  what  they  took  to  be  a 
satire  upon  their  nation,  the  Jewish  leaders  asked  the  governor 
to  modify  it  by  the  statement  that  this  was  what  Jesus  called 
Himself;  but  Pilate  repulsed  them  with  the  laconic  utterance, 
"  What  i  have  written,  I  have  written."     It  may  be  added  that 
in  this  matter  we  trace  the  Roman  custom  of  covering  the  tablet 
with  gypsum  and  inscribing  upon  it  the  crime  with  which  the 
bearer  was  charged.    As  Jesus  passed  along  in  sorrowful  silence. 
He  must  have  contrasted  the  procession  of  the  Palm  Sunday  when, 
instead  of  harsh  cries  for  His  Crucifixion,  the  air  was  rent  with 
glad  hosannas.     Yet  St.  Luke  has  preserved  for  us  a  tradition 
that  confirms  the  fourth  evangelist's  impression  of  Christ's  regal 
self-possession  and  autonomy,  even  at  this  stage  of  His  physical 
humiliation,  showing  us  that,  although  worn  out  with  the  long 
strain  of  agony,  Jesus  was  still  thinking  of  others  rather  than  of 
Himself.    This  Lucan  detail  also  relieves  the  common  people  of 
a  perfidious  apostasy ;  for  along  the  road  Jesus,  seeing  "  a  large 
multitude  of  the  people  and  of  women  "  beating  their  breasts  and 
lamenting  for  Him,  He  turned  and  said,  with  prophetic  tender- 
ness : 

"Daughters  of  Jerusalem!  weep  not  for  Me, 
But  weep  for  yourselves  and  for  your  children: 

For  behold !  days  are  coming  when  it  shall  be  said,  ,    ^.    .  ,„^ 

Happy  the  barren-the  wombs  that  have  not  borne,  the  breasts  that  have 
not  given  suck! 

^The  father  of  Alexander  and  Rufus   (cf.  Rom.  xvi.  13  and  Acts  xix 
'i'K)      Some  of  the  Gnostics  reported  that  Simon  was  crucified  instead  of 
Jesus.    The  Moslems  also  believe  that  Jesus  was  caught  away,  and  that 
some  other  was  slain  in  His  stead. 


480  The  Finished  Work 

Then  shall  they  begin  to  say  to  the  mountains,  'Fall  on  us,' 
And  to  the  mounds,  'cover  us'; 
For  if  they  do  this  in  the  green  tree, 
What  shall  be  done  in  the  dry  ?  " 

9.  Were  the  Crucifixion  of  Jesus  an  ordinary  history  of  a 
criminal  execution,  we  should  shrink  from  dwelling  upon  the 
physical  horrors ;  but  the  subsequent  events  issuing  from  it  have 
shown  it  to  be  the  most  arrestive  tragedy  in  the  annals  of  our 
race;  and  however  it  may  be  interpreted,  the  fire  of  the  Passion 
behind  it  purges  us  of  ignoble  egotisms.  The  discrepancy  be- 
tween the  earliest  and  latest  gospels  ^  in  relation  to  the  hour  of 
the  Crucifixion  need  not  vex  us  if  we  remember  oriental  loose- 
ness in  all  speech  about  time.  Another  uncertainty  is  whether 
the  wine  drugged  with  myrrh  was  offered  indiscriminately  to  the 
victims  to  stupefy  them,  or  whether  St.  Matthew's  account  is 
truer,  that  the  gall  was  offered  in  cruel  sportiveness.  The  Cross 
was  probably  little  higher  than  the  stature  of  a  man ;  but  we  do 
not  know  if  the  soldiers  nailed  Christ's  feet  to  it  as  well  as  His 
hands.  Besides  telling  us  of  the  two  thieves  who  were  crucified 
with  Jesus,  St.  Luke  records  a  very  remarkable  dialogue  among 
those  sufferers.  One  of  them  began  to  mock  Jesus  with  spiteful 
jibes ;  he  was  checked,  however,  by  his  companion,  who  petitioned 
Jesus  as  his  Lord  to  remember  him  when  He  should  come  in 
His  Kingdom.  Surely  there  could  not  be  a  greater  miracle  of 
faith  than  that  this  dying  criminal  should  look  upon  Jesus  in  His 
shameful  death-agony  as  a  King  whom  death  could  not  destroy, 
and  address  to  Him  such  a  prayer.  Amazing,  too,  was  the  calm 
certitude  of  the  Crucified  Lord,  as  He  answered,  "  This  day  shalt 
thou  be  in  paradise  with  Me."  Meanwhile  the  Jewish  officials 
hurled  their  satire  at  Him  that  He  saved  others,  but  could  not  save 
Himself.  That  taunt  is  now  Christ's  highest  eulogy ;  for,  as  one 
has  said,^  "  Jesus  fastened  Himself  to  the  Cross  with  three  nails  " 
— "  the  one  of  the  love  of  man,"  "  the  other  of  obedience  to  the 
Eternal  Father,"  and  the  third,  "  the  zeal  of  His  Glory  and  of  our 
Good  " — which  "  three  nails  "  held  Him  to  the  Cross  more  surely 
than  any  iron  bonds.  In  spite  of  Nature's  occasional  indiffer- 
ence to  the  fate  of  man,  there  often  seems  to  be  some  occult 
sympathy  between  them.  In  this  instance,  although  it  was  about 
the  hour  of  noon,  so  strange  a  darkness  fell  upon  the  land  that  the 

*  Mark  xv.  33 ;  John  xix.  14. 

*  Louis  De  Ponte,  Meditations,  iv.,  p.  397. 


The  Way  of  the  Cross  481 

Roman  centurion  in  charge  of  the  execution  made  the  super- 
stitious ejaculation  about  that  central  victim  whose  demeanour 
throughout  had  impressed  him  as  that  of  one  both  Great  and 
Good,  "  Truly  this  was  a  son  of  God !  "  Quoting  a  traveller's 
experiences,  the  late  Dr.  Bruce  suggested  that  it  might  have  been 
one  of  those  hot-wind  storms  which  rage  from  the  southeast, 
when  "  the  heavens  are  overcast  with  a  deep  grey,  and  the  sun 
loses  his  brightness  and  disappears.  Over  the  darkened  land 
rages  the  storm,  so  that  the  country  in  the  morning  is  like  a 
flower-carpet,  in  the  evening  appears  a  waste.  ...  On  the 
saddest  day  in  human  history  swept  such  a  storm  at  noon  over 
Jerusalem,  adding  to  the  terrors  of  the  Crucifixion !  "  ^ 

lo.  The  dying  words  of  those  we  love  are  treasured  long  in 
living  memories  and  tend  to  get  repeated.  Outside  the  Gospels 
are  no  records  of  the  "  seven  words  "  from  the  Cross ;  it  is  not 
impossible  that  Jesus  spoke  articulately  but  thrice,  and  that  His 
words  may  have  been  transmitted  with  oral  variations;  but 
neither  is  it  wholly  incredible  that  Jesus  actually  spoke  these 
seven  words  which  preserve  the  spirit  and  aroma  of  His  Sacri- 
fice. The  fourth  evangelist  relates  the  fulfilment  of  Simeon's 
prediction  that  Mary's  heart  should  be  pierced  through  as  with  a 
sword.  As  she  stood  by  the  Cross  with  John,  Jesus  said, 
"Woman,  behold  thy  Son!  Behold  thy  Mother!"  St.  Luke 
preserves  the  beautiful  prayer,  "  Father,  forgive  them ;  they  know 
not  what  they  are  doing."  ^  Next  followed  that  agonizing  cry  of 
defeat — "  that  mysterious,  that  two-sided,  that  incompatible  cry — 
so  spiritually  desolate,  yet  so  tranquil  in  Spirit — "  My  God,  My 
God,  Why  hast  Thou  forsaken  Me?'"«  Of  this  we  can  only 
say,  that,  if  the  words  of  the  twenty-second  Psalm  were  really  on 
His  dying  lips,  we  are  sure  also  that  the  psalmist's  certainty  of 
deliverance  was  in  His  heart.  St.  John  records  the  cry  of  thirst. 
Some  there  were  who  made  a  jest  of  the  Aramaic  "  Eloi,  Eloi, 
lama  Sabacthani,"  saying:  "Hold,  let  us  see  if  Elias  _  comes !  " 
Ended  at  last  was  His  curriculum  of  sorrow ;  His  obedience  was 
perfected,  the  sacrifice  was  consummated,  and  Jesus  cried,  "  Tt  is 
finished !  "    The  first  two  evangelists  note  that  He  expired  with  a 

*  Furrer,  Wanderingen,  p.  17s,  quoted  by  Bruce  in  Expos.  Gk.  T.,  Mark, 
in  loco. 

*  Omitted  fr.  some  valuable  MSS. 

*  Moberly,  The  Atonement  and  Personality,  p.  131. 


482  The  Finished  Work 

loud  cry ;  St.  John  states  that  "  He  bent  His  head  and  gave  up 
the  Spirit,"  while  St.  Luke  says  that  He  commended  Himself  to 
the  Heavenly  Father  with  a  great  voice :  "  Father,  into  Thy  hands 
I  entrust  My  Spirit."  The  Passion  was  at  an  end  at  last;  for 
with  unseemly  haste  the  enemies  of  Jesus  had  hurried  events 
from  the  hour  of  the  arrest,  and  the  swift  movement  of  the  whole 
tragedy  seems  to  have  paralyzed  the  friends  of  the  Master.  In 
death,  however.  He  found  new  friends.  Joseph  of  Arimathea 
went  to  Pilate  and  requested  him  to  give  the  mangled  body  to 
himself  for  burial.  Seeing  that  the  Crucifixion  had  lasted  a  com- 
paratively short  time,  one  of  the  soldiers  made  certain  that  Jesus 
had  not  simply  swooned  by  piercing  His  side  with  a  spear;  and, 
says  the  Evangelist,  recording  the  tradition  of  an  eye-witness, 
"  immediately  there  came  out  blood  and  water."  It  would  thus 
seem  that  the  sufferings  of  Jesus  had  been  terminated  by  the 
literal  breaking  of  His  heart.  Joseph  had  purchased  linen  for 
the  body,  and  Nicodemus  brought  myrrh  and  aloes,  and  together 
these  two  counsellors  laid  the  body  in  a  new  sepulchre,  "  where 
as  yet  no  man  had  ever  been  laid."  They  were  followed  by  the 
women  who,  "  after  noting  the  tomb  and  how  His  body  was  laid, 
returned  and  got  ready  spices  and  ointments." 

II.  A  few  brief  allusions  only  are  necessary  to  recall  some 
of  the  incidents  concurrent  with  and  dependent  upon  the  Cruci- 
fixion of  Jesus.  Discrepant  accounts  are  given  of  the  fate  of 
Judas  in  St.  Matthew  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  The  Jewish 
evangelist  takes  the  Marcan  tradition  that  the  chief  priests 
"  promised  to  give  him  (Judas)  money  "  and  expands  it  by  an 
inexact  quotation  of  ancient  prophecy.  He  also  states  that  when 
Judas  saw  that  Jesus  was  condemned,  he  was  stricken  with  re- 
morse, and,  returning  the  silver  to  the  priests,  went  and  hanged 
himself;  that  then  the  priests  took  up  the  rejected  money  and 
purchased  with  it  the  "  Potter's  Field,"  which  henceforth  came  to 
be  known  as  the  Field  of  Blood,  and  was  used  as  a  cemetery  for 
strangers.  On  the  other  hand,  St.  Luke  says  nothing  of  the 
traitor's  remorse,  but  represents  him  as  buying  a  field  with  the 
blood-money,  and  afterwards  meeting  his  death  by  a  fall.  The 
name  Akeldama  may  be  simply  the  Aramaic  equivalent  for 
"  cemetery."  Out  of  these  discrepancies  emerge  the  generally 
accepted  belief  that,  after  the  betrayal  of  Jesus,  Judas,  either  by 
accident  or  suicide,  came  to  a  ghastly  and  untimely  end.    Sceptical 


The  Way  of  the  Cross  483 

writers  have  been  prone  to  suggest  that  the  Old  Testament  oracles 
gave  incentive  to  the  invention  of  many  details;  but  reflection 
upon  such  correspondences  induces  us  to  believe  that  the  actual 
occurrences  recalled  to  men's  minds  literary  and  prophetic  allu- 
sions. Thus  the  callous  appeal  to  chance  by  the  Roman  soldiers 
in  gambling  for  our  Lord's  tunic  at  the  foot  of  the  Cross,  would 
remind  subsequent  writers  of  the  words  of  the  psalm,  "  They 
part  my  garments  among  them,  and  upon  my  vesture  do  they  cast 
lots."  Some  of  the  supposed  incidents  may  have  arisen  from 
symbolism  afterwards  used  to  set  forth  the  consequences  of 
Christ's  sacrifice;  but,  while  admitting  such  a  possibility,  we  are 
far  from  feeling  sure  that  they  were  not  real  occurrences.  St. 
Mark  affirms  that  at  our  Lord's  death  the  thick,  gorgeous  veil 
of  the  temple,  through  which  only  the  high-priest  might  pass  once 
a  year  on  the  Day  of  Atonement,  was  rent  from  top  to  bottom. 
For  the  imagination  of  the  Primitive  Church,  such  a  figure  might 
naturally  be  used  to  illustrate  the  new  access  that  Christ's  death 
gave  to  man  by  removing  all  hindrances.  St.  Matthew  describes 
the  Death  as  accompanied  by  an  earthquake,  and  asserts  that 
the  tombs  were  opened  and  that  the  dead  returned  as  phantoms. 
Few  today  would  boldly  venture  to  say  that  such  things  could 
not  happen,  and  many  will  admit  a  certain  propriety  in  setting 
forth  the  mighty  issues  of  our  Lord's  sacrifice  in  such  legendary 
symbolism.  If  such  fringes  of  the  Passion  narratives  be  treated 
as  Aberglaube,  still  they  serve  to  accentuate  the  feeling  of  won- 
der felt  by  the  early  Christians  as  they  brooded  over  the  mystery 
of  the  Cross. 

12.  In  this  study  of  the  Crucifixion,  our  purpose  has  been 
severely  historical  and  not  doctrinal ;  but  it  seems  natural  that  a 
few  impressional  reflections  should  follow.  Jesus  died.  But  we 
do  not  know  all  that  death  means ;  the  outward  visible  signs 
mark  a  change  in  relationship,  but  they  do  not  necessarily  imply 
any  destruction  of  the  spiritual  part.  Our  impressions  of  the 
Crucifixion  will  be  determined  largely  by  our  conception  of 
Christ's  Personality.  Jesus  was  a  true  Priest;  He  stood  near 
to  God  and  near  to  man ;  and  all  admit  that  He  sustained  unique 
relations  with  the  Heavenly  Father.  His  death,  therefore,  was 
not  merely  a  memorable  and  isolated  martyrdom,  from  which  we 
deduce  lessons  of  patience,  obedience  and  piety;  it  was  a  great 
sacrifice  made  in  the  service  of  humanity.    Jesus  on  the  Cross  ful- 


484  The  Finished  Work 

filled  the  Greek  ideal  of  some  great  compassionate  Titan  strug- 
gling against  the  inexorable  tyranny  of  evil  and  wresting  from 
the  future  some  uplift  for  the  race.  As  He  approached  His 
doom,  Jesus  said :  "  The  prince  of  this  world  cometh  and  in  Me 
he  hath  not  anything."  "  His  Death  was  the  natural  climax  and 
crowning  instance  of  the  contradiction  provoked  by  His  inex- 
tinguishable zeal  for  righteousness."  ^  It  is  recorded  by  St. 
Luke  that,  six  weeks  later,  Simon  Peter  described  Jesus  as  "  being 
delivered  up  by  the  determinate  counsel  and  foreknowledge  of 
God,"  and  crucified  and  slain  "  by  the  hand  of  lawless  men." 
With  this  view,  however,  must  be  joined  St.  John's  persistent 
thought  of  Christ's  voluntariness  in  death.  He  offered  up  Him- 
self in  obedience  to  the  Divine  appointment ;  He  handed  Himself 
over  to  His  enemies.  His  Death  was  therefore  "  a  perfect  Amen 
in  Inimanity  to  the  judgement  of  God  on  the  sin  of  man."  -  In- 
stead of  invoking  legions  of  angels  for  His  rescue,  as  He  said 
He  might  have  done,  He  subordinated  the  tragedy  to  His  life- 
purpose  and  made  Death  a  sacrifice  for  the  race  of  which  He  re- 
mains the  Spiritual  head.  By  such  autonomy  in  suffering  He 
changed  ignominy  into  exaltation,  humiliation  into  glory.  "  The 
Lord  reigned  from  the  Tree."  The  self-immolation  of  our  Lord 
removed  the  thick  veils  that  had  hidden  God  the  Father,  and 
raised  men  into  a  reconstituted  Spiritual  relationship.  The  touch 
of  Death  made  sacred  all  that  belonged  to  Him. 

*  Bruce,  The  Humiliation,  p.  295. 

*M'Leod  Campbell,  On  the  Nature  of  the  Atonement,  p.  138. 


CHAPTER  III 

JESUS  RISES  AND  APPEARS 

I.  Books  of  ordinary  biography  conclude  with  the  death 
scenes,  and  statements  of  posthumous  influence;  but  St.  Luke, 
having  traced  the  account  of  Jesus  from  the  miraculous  birth  to 
the  Crucifixion  and  Resurrection,  writes  a  sequel  in  which  he 
describes  his  earlier  treatise  as  simply  relating  "  the  things  which 
Jesus  began  both  to  do  and  to  teach  until  the  day  of  His  Assump- 
tion." In  these  words  is  implied  the  whole  faith  of  the  Apostolic 
Church.  Death  was  not  the  end  of  Jesus;  it  constituted  a  new 
beginning  of  His  wider  Ministry.  The  presuppositions  of  Natu- 
ralism prevent  belief  in  any  work  after  death.  From  this  point 
of  view,  the  measure  of  emphasis  upon  the  moral  beauty  of  the 
life  of  Jesus  is  also  the  measure  of  His  dismal  and  squalid 
failure.  Such  an  estimate  makes  life,  alike  at  its  highest  and 
its  lowest,  the  play  of  grim  necessity;  it  leaves  no  room  for 
moral  differences,  there  is  neither  good  nor  ill.  But  it  is  a  mat- 
ter of  historic  fact  that  death  did  not  cause  the  cessation  of 
Christ's  activity;  all  the  various  and  rich  phenomena  of  the 
Christian  religion  sprang  from  the  Cross  and  the  Grave.  "  What- 
ever may  have  happened  at  the  grave  and  in  the  matter  of  the 
appearances,  one  thing  is  certain:  this  grave  was  the  birthplace 
of  the  indestructible  belief  that  death  is  vanquished,  that  there 
is  life  eternal."  ^  So  real  are  these  post-Crucifixion  activities  of 
Christ  that  some  who  have  found  themselves  unable  to  accept  the 
Resurrection  fact  have  joined  with  certain  of  the  Gnostics  and 
Mohammedans  in  denying  that  Jesus  actually  suffered  death  by 
crucifixion.  The  Moslem  doctors  assert  that  at  the  end  some 
substitute  took  the  place  of  Jesus  and  was  crucified ;  while  cer- 
tain critics  within  Christendom  have  clutched  at  the  imagined 
possibility  that  Jesus  succumbed  on  the  Cross  to  a  profound 
swoon.  But  the  true  student  of  history  is  forced,  sooner  or  later, 
to  abandon  such  fanciful  expedients  and  to  admit  the  fact  that 

*  A.  Harnack,  What  is  Christianity?  p.  162. 
486 


486  The  Finished  Work 

Jesus  suffered  the  bitter  pangs  of  death— even  the  death  of  the 
Cross.  St.  Matthew  relates  that  the  Jewish  authorities,  having 
secured  the  Crucifixion,  next  obtained  a  guard  for  the  grave. 
"  Sir,"  they  said  to  Pilate,  "  we  have  remembered  that  when 
this  deceiver  was  alive,  He  said,  '  After  three  days  I  rise  again.' 
Give  orders,  then,  to  have  the  sepulchre  secured  until  the  third 
day,  lest  the  disciples  come  and  steal  Him  away  and  say  to  the 
people,  '  He  rose  from  the  dead,'  and  so  the  last  fraud  will  be 
worse  than  the  first."  Impatient  at  such  relentless  and  pertina- 
cious hate  on  the  part  of  the  high-priests  and  Pharisees,  Pilate 
brusquely  exclaimed,  "Take  a  guard  and  begone!  Secure  it 
yourselves,  as  you  know  how."  "  So,"  says  the  Evangelist,  "  they 
went  and  made  the  sepulchre  sure,  sealing  the  stone,  the  guard 
being  with  them."  The  failure  of  the  disciples  to  understand 
their  Lord's  repeated  predictions  that  He  would  rise  again  had 
not  prevented  vague  rumours  of  these  remarkable  sayings  from 
becoming  known.  But  some  critics  have  implied  that,  had  there 
been  a  "  watch  "  placed  about  the  sealed  grave,  the  pious  women 
of  the  Gospels  would  hardly  have  expected  to  be  allowed  to  open 
the  tomb  and  embalm  the  body.  Since,  however,  St.  Matthew 
states  that  the  precaution  of  a  military  guard  was  not  petitioned 
until  the  day  following  the  Crucifixion,  the  women  may  well  have 
been  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  the  authorities  had  made  the  grave 
inaccessible  to  them. 

2.  The  historical  certainty  that  Jesus  died  on  the  Cross  and 
was  buried  cannot  be  shaken;  yet  this  fact  alone  could  never 
have  proved  the  foundation  of  the  Christian  Religion;  with  it 
must  be  joined,  in  coequal  assurance,  the  fact  that  there  grew  up, 
within  a  few  short  weeks  at  most,  a  belief  that  Jesus  rose  again 
from  the  tomb.  Even  scholars  who  were  predisposed  to  reject 
the  possibility  of  miracles,  and  are  compelled  by  their  philosophic 
premisses  to  disbelieve  the  Resurrection-fact,  have  been  forced 
to  admit  the  rise  and  spread  of  the  Resurrection-faith,  and  also 
to  acknowledge  that  this  primitive  faith  alone  accounts  for  the 
origin  and  power  of  the  Christian  Church.  The  problem  con- 
fronting the  critics  is  to  account  for  the  faith  while  they  reject 
the  fact.  This  Resurrection-faith  created  the  Church ;  it  gave  to 
the  apostles  a  victorious  certainty  in  their  work  of  propagating 
the  Gospel :  nay,  it  even  gave  the  essential  idea  and  kernel  of  their 
Gospel,  and  now  forms  the  underlying  assumption  of  the  entire 


Jesus  Rises  and  Appears  487 

New  Testament.    In  the  very  earliest  writing  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment the  Resurrection-faith  is  assumed  to  be  coextensive  with 
the  Church :  "  If  we  beHeve  that  Jesus  died  and  rose,  so  also  will 
God  bring  with   Him,   through   Jesus,   those  who  have   fallen 
asleep."^     We  do  not  exceed  the  range  of  literal  veracity  by 
affirming  that  the  New  Testament  writers   simply  take  it   for 
granted   that  the   bodily   resurrection   of   Jesus   constituted   the 
foundation  of  all  Christian  doctrine ;  and  yet  it  may  be  remarked 
upon  as  surprising  that,  while  the  apostles  take  the  Resurrection- 
faith  as  the  ground  idea  of  the  Gospel,  they  nowhere  express  any 
consciousness  that  it  is  necessary  to  prove  that  this  miracle  actu- 
ally occurred.     For  them  the  Resurrection  was  already  proved, 
and,  instead  of  striving  after  further  demonstration,  they  take 
the  fact  as  itself  the  verifying  evidence  of  their  doctrine  and 
purpose  summed  up  in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  "  that  Jesus  is  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  and  that  believing  you  may  have  life  in 
His  name."  »     The  certainty  of  the  Resurrection  produced  the 
Church,  and  the  Church  is  the  undying  witness  of  the  reality  of 
the  Faith.     The  belief  that  Jesus  lives,  acts  continually  as  a  re- 
newing power  upon  Christian  society.     Bishop  Westcott  rightly 
affirmed,  "  It  is  not  an  accessory  of  the  Apostolic  message,  but 
the  message  itself."     The  conception  as  expressed  by  the  Evan- 
gelists and  Apostles  has  itself  the  characteristics  of  a  revelation." 
Further,  "  The  Resurrection  offers  a  new  foundation  for  social 

union."  ^ 

Even  Schmiedel  admits,  after  enumerating  some  of  the  vital 
articles  of  Christianity,  such  as  the  doctrine  that  the  death 
of  Jesus  has  saving  power;  that  Christ's  supremacy  over  the 
Church  is  secure,  and  that  all  believers  may  look  forward  to 
the  resurrection  to  a  life  of  everlasting  blessedness,  that  "  if  at 
any  time  it  should  come  to  be  recognized  that  the  Resurrection 
of  Jesus  never  happened,  the  Christian  faith  with  respect  to  all 
these  points  would  come  to  an  end." 

3.  As  we  have  observed,  the  omission  of  all  attempts  at 
demonstrating  historically  the  grounds  for  the  belief  in  the 
Resurrection-fact  only  accentuates  the  naive  certainty  of  the 
Easter-faith;  and  we  must  now  strive  to  appraise  the  true 
value  of  this  apostolic  conviction  from  the  standpoint  of  history. 

iThess   iv    14  ^J^'^"  ^^^:.?^- 

3  Westcott,  The  Gospel  of  the  Resurrection,  Intro.  52  and  chap  in.,  p.  I. 


488  The  Finished  Work 

St.  Paul  is  our  earliest  literary  witness ;  his  first  authentic  epistle 
carries  the  mind  back  within  twenty  years  of  the  Crucifixion,  and 
at  that  time  he  was  able  to  assume  the  Resurrection  of  Jesus  as 
a  fact  established  beyond  doubt  in  all  Christian  circles.  Behind 
this  apostolic  literary  testimony  was  the  transmitted  oral  wit- 
ness of  those  who  knew  Jesus  intimately.  All  the  recorded  and 
implied  circumstances  show  that  there  could  have  been  no  time 
for  the  gestation  of  a  new  myth;  the  faith  arose  immediately 
after  Jesus  had  publicly  died,  and  was  avowed  by  the  disciples, 
who  had  evinced  no  previous  expectancy  of  His  reappearance. 
St.  Paul,  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  gives  a  few  slight  auto- 
biographical details  of  two  visits  to  Jerusalem  which  he  made, 
the  second  occurring  fourteen  years  after  the  first.  Since  from 
Acts  XV.  we  calculate  that  the  second  visit  was  made  not  later 
than  A.D.  51,  it  may  be  inferred  that  about  a.d.  37,  or  three 
years  after  his  conversion,  St.  Paul  spent  fifteen  days  with 
Cephas  at  Jerusalem.  "  But,"  he  writes,  "  no  other  of  the  apostles 
saw  I  except  James  the  brother  of  the  Lord."  Then  it  was  that 
this  keen  dialectician,  who  still  astonishes  men  by  the  philosophic 
breadth  and  insight  of  his  letters,  inquired  of  the  men  who  knew 
at  first-hand  concerning  the  historical  appearances  of  the  Risen 
Jesus,  who  had  been  revealed  in  himself  within  twelve  or  eighteen 
months  of  the  Crucifixion.  It  has  been  remarked  that  St.  Paul 
made  no  mention  of  the  empty  grave,  and  that  his  faith  rested 
upon  his  own  subjective  vision  of  Jesus,  and  not  upon  the  ground 
of  a  physical  resurrection.  But  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  give  a 
fair  interpretation  to  St.  Paul's  testimony,  and  not  recognize  that 
the  emphasis  falls  upon  the  Resurrection-fact,  and  carries  the 
implication  that  the  Body  of  Jesus  had  actually  been  taken  up  and 
restored  to  the  Spirit  of  a  Victorious  Christ.  Further,  we  con- 
jecture, without  using  the  supposition  as  evidence,  that  so  keen 
a  man  as  this  apostle  would  be  eager  to  see  the  place  where  our 
Lord  had  lain.  That  apostle  had  not  built  his  faith  upon  the  sight 
of  an  empty  tomb,  but  upon  the  spiritual  experience  he  had  re- 
ceived, that  Christ  was  a  living  Person ;  and  yet  in  his  subsequent 
writings  St.  Paul  implies  his  belief  that  the  Body  of  Christ  did  not 
see  corruption.  Impartiality  in  this  matter  will  perhaps  be  as- 
sured by  the  fact  that  today  our  faith  in  the  Living  Christ  is  not 
dependent  upon  the  historical  evidence  of  the  physical  resurrec- 
tion. At  the  same  time  it  does  not  seem  that  the  faith  can  be 
reasonably  accounted  for  apart  from  the  fact;  and  the  fact  will 


Jesus  Rises  and  Appears  489 

ever  possess  both  an  historical  and  a  spiritual  value  for  all  who 
are  able  to  admit  it. 

4.  Although,  as  literary  products,  the  Gospels  and  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles  belong  to  a  later  date  than  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  yet 
the  testimonies  and  beliefs  embodied  in  them  take  us  back  to  the 
actual  occurrences  of  the  Evangelic  Ministry  of  Jesus.  Whatever 
modifications  had  taken  place  in  the  processes  of  oral  transmis- 
sion, we  do  not  believe  that  the  remembrances  of  the  first  eye- 
witnesses were  substantially  altered.  The  defects  and  discrepan- 
cies of  the  Gospels  lie  on  the  surface ;  the  authors  were  mani- 
festly too  ingenuous  and  honest  to  strive  after  any  artificial  har- 
mony. And  for  this  very  reason  their  narratives  yield  fewer 
points  of  contact  than  we  should  wish.  Strauss  has  ventured  the 
serious  indictment  that  "  the  various  evangelical  writers  only 
agree  as  to  a  few  of  the  appearances  of  Jesus  after  His  Resurrec- 
tion; the  designation  of  the  locality  in  one  excludes  the  appear- 
ances narrated  by  the  rest;  the  determination  of  time  in  another 
leaves  no  space  for  the  narratives  of  his  fellow-Evangelists;  the 
enumeration  of  a  third  is  given  without  any  regard  to  the  events 
reported  by  his  predecessors ;  lastly,  among  several  appearances 
recounted  by  various  narrators,  each  claims  to  be  the  last,  and  yet 
has  nothing  in  common  with  the  others."  ^  But  this  verdict,  how- 
ever honestly  given,  is  as  much  due  to  the  influence  of  the  critic's 
presuppositions  as  it  is  grounded  upon  the  data  of  the  Gospels. 
The  late  Bishop  Westcott  afiirmed  that  "  the  circumstances  under 
which  God  is  said  to  have  given  a  revelation  to  men  in  the 
resurrection  of  the  Lord  Jesus  were  such  as  to  make  the  special 
manifestation  of  power  likely,  or  even  natural ;  and  the  evidence 
by  which  the  special  Revelation  is  supported  is  such  as  would  in 
any  ordinary  matter  of  life  be  amply  sufficient  to  determine 
our  action  and  belief."  "  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  there  is 
no  single  historic  incident  better  or  more  variously  supported 
than  the  Resurrection  of  Christ."  ^  Although  few  students 
would  now  echo  such  absolute  dogmatic  assurance, — so  changed  is 
the  temper  of  the  times, — yet  neither  would  a  balanced  judgement 
swing  to  the  other  extreme  position  held  by  Strauss.  Once  again 
we  may  seek  guidance  between  these  irreconcilable  dicta  by 
recalling  our  impressions  received  from  the  totality  of  facts  about 

*  Strauss,  Life  of  Jesus,  pt.  iii.,  chap,  iv.,  p.  138. 

"  Westcott,  The  Gospel  of  the  Resurrection,  chap,  i.,  par.  63. 


490  The  Finished  Work 

Jesus.  If  the  evangelic  testimonies  about  the  Resurrection  fall  in 
harmoniously  with  the  general  plan  of  Christ's  life  which  we 
have  found  in  the  course  of  this  study,  then  we  shall  return  to 
the  New  Testament  witness  of  this  supernatural  event  with  a 
presumption  in  its  favour.  As  we  have  followed  the  records  of 
the  evangelists,  it  has  been  borne  in  upon  our  minds  that  there 
was,  in  the  life  of  Jesus,  a  very  large  element  which  must  be 
characterized  as  supernatural.  For  ourselves,  then,  be  it  said, 
we  start  with  no  bias  against  the  credibility  of  the  Resurrection ; 
and  we  do  not  demand  impossibilities  in  the  way  of  documen- 
tary evidence,  but  we  are  prepared  to  seek  the  underlying  har- 
monies which  no  superficial  disagreements  can  destroy.  History 
knows  no  mathematical  exactitude  ;  it  is  the  realm  of  probabilities : 
certitude  arises,  not  simply  from  the  absence  of  discrepancies,  but 
from  the  cumulative  weight  of  convergent  testimony.  But  this 
attitude  of  judgement  does  not  lead  us  to  ascribe  to  the  evangel- 
ists the  critical  acumen  of  scientific  historians,  for  they  shared  the 
weaknesses  and  credulities  of  their  age ;  yet  their  honesty  of  in- 
tention is  too  patent  to  be  denied.  We  admit  the  embarrassment 
St.  Matthew  makes  us  feel  by  his  exclusive  record  of  Galilean 
appearances  over  against  St.  Luke's  recital  of  Judasan  manifesta- 
tions. St.  John,  however,  mediates  between  them  by  his  story 
of  the  meeting  between  Jesus  and  the  Seven  Disciples  by  the 
Sea  of  Tiberius.  In  the  authentic  part  of  St.  Mark,  no  post- 
Resurrection  appearances  are  given  ;  but  the  appendix  enumerates 
Christophanies  which  are  recorded  by  the  other  evangelists. 

5.  Ritschlian  theologians  strive  to  show  that,  even  though  the 
bodily  resurrection  be  abandoned  as  a  figment,  still  the  spiritual 
value  of  this  idea  may  be  conserved  in  the  experimental  doctrine 
of  Christ's  continuing  activity.  However  much  of  truth  may 
inhere  in  this  view,  there  still  remains  to  be  explained  the  dis- 
ciples' unanimous  belief  that  their  Lord  had  risen.  As  Baur  ac- 
knowledged, "  In  the  faith  of  the  disciples,  the  Resurrection  of 
Jesus  Christ  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  solid  and  unquestionable 
fact.  It  was  in  this  fact  that  Christianity  acquired  a  firm  basis 
for  its  historical  development."  ^  The  uprising  of  this  faith  is  a 
psychological  phenomenon  which  is  most  naturally  and  rationally 
explained  by  the  occurrence  of  the  physical  fact.  We  must  guard 
against  the  subtle  vice  of  scholars  who  impose  modern  refine- 
^  The  First  Three  Centuries  (Eng.  trans.),  P-  42. 


Jesus  Rises  and  Appears  491 

ments  of  thought  upon  the  primitive  and  naive  intelligence  of  the 
New  Testament  witnesses.  In  the  minds  of  the  disciples  their 
strong,  passionate  belief  in  the  Heavenly  existence  of  Jesus  was 
no  deduction  of  reason  drawn  from  a  dogma  of  immortality; 
but  it  was  a  conviction  forced  upon  them  by  mysterious  reappear- 
ances of  their  Crucified  Lord.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  they 
believed  that  Jesus  had  risen  and  revisited  them ;  that  He  ap- 
peared to  them  individually  and  also  when  together,  and  even 
partook  of  material  food  with  them.  According  to  the  earliest 
traditions,  these  appearances  began  on  the  third  day  after  the 
Crucifixion  and  were  repeated  at  intervals  through  the  course 
of  forty  days,  when  they  definitely  ceased.  The  later  vision 
granted  to  St.  Paul  may  stand  by  itself  in  a  separate  category. 
A  facile  explanation  assigns  all  these  phenomena  to  hallucination 
and  hysteria.  Now  while  it  would  be  easily  credible  that  one  or 
two  persons  might  have  been  victims  of  hysterical  imaginations, 
it  is  hard  to  believe  that  the  various  groups  of  disciples  and 
friends  should  all  have  been  dupes  of  their  illusory  fancies,  and 
that  these  hallucinations  should  last  just  six  weeks,  and  then 
cease  altogether.  There  are  no  historical  data  for  assuming  that 
the  disciples  were  predisposed  to  expect  such  reappearances;  for 
they  were  disappointed,  grieved  and  distracted  by  the  tragedy  of 
the  Crucifixion.  Strangely  enough,  while  the  high-priests  and 
Pharisees  are  said  to  have  recollected  Christ's  sayings  about  rising 
again,  the  disciples  had  so  completely  forgotten  them  that  some 
critics  have  argued  that  Jesus  never  uttered  such  predictions.  The 
disciples  were  not  merely  unexpectant ;  they  seemed  at  first  totally 
unready  to  believe  that  Jesus  had  risen ;  they  actually  doubted  the 
first  testimonies  of  their  own  companions :  "  for  as  yet,  they  knew 
not  the  Scripture  that  He  must  rise  again  from  the  dead."  ^  No 
ancient  oracles  gave  rise  to  the  belief ;  the  belief,  however,  became 
the  occasion  of  subsequent  recollections  of  Scripture  prophecies. 
There  is  not  an  atom  of  evidence  to  show  that  any  one  of  them 
was  previously  inclined  to  subjective  visions;  they  were  simply 
ashamed,  terrified  and  crushed  by  the  inexplicable  tragedy  of  the 
Cross.  Suddenly,  a  change  came;  from  the  depth  of  despair 
they  were,  one  and  all,  transported  into  a  mood  of  victorious  cer- 
tainty that  Jesus  had  risen  and  was  alive  again.  Then  in  the  light 
of  this  faith,  the  Cross  became  transfigured  and  stood  forth  as 
the  Divine  Symbol  of  Love's  Conquest.     The  uprising  of  this 

*John  XX.  8. 


492  The  Finished  Work 

Resurrection-faith  can  be  accounted  for  only  by  the  acceptance  of 
the  sensuous  perceptions  of  the  appearances  of  the  Risen  Jesus. 
The  inevitable  conclusion  of  our  review  of  the  testimonies  of  the 
Gospels  and  of  the  antecedents  of  this  new  faith,  is  that  the  ap- 
pearances were  genuine  manifestations  made  by  Jesus  to  demon- 
strate to  His  disciples  the  reality  of  His  Resurrection.  The 
theory  of  subjective  visions  might  have  been  accepted  of  St.  Paul 
alone ;  yet  even  he,  by  his  definite  mention  of  "  the  third  day," 
throws  out  a  concrete  detail  which  harmonizes  more  easily  with 
an  actual  Resurrection-faith  than  with  a  visionary  ideal.  We 
accept  Dr.  Orr's  verdict  as  characteristically  sober  and  grounded 
upon  the  facts  of  the  Gospels :  "  It  will  be  fully  recognized 
that  .  .  .  the  narratives  are  fragmentary,  condensed,  often  gen- 
eralized, are  different  in  points  of  view,  difficult  in  some  respects 
to  fit  into  each  other,  yet  generally,  with  patient  inspection, 
furnishing  a  key  to  the  solution  of  their  own  difficulties — receiv- 
ing, also,  no  small  elucidation  from  the  better-ordered  story  of 
St.  John."  1 

6.  The  Resurrection-faith  upon  which  the  Christian  Church 
was  founded,  rested  then  upon  the  genuine  appearances  of  the 
Living  Lord;  and,  unless  we  rewrite  the  history  of  the  Gospels, 
we  must  accept  the  connection  of  these  appearances  with  the 
definite  assertion  that  Jesus  rose  on  "  the  third  day,"  and  that  the 
tomb  that  morning  was  found  to  be  empty.  The  swoon  theory 
was  shattered  by  Keim,  so  that  it  scarcely  demands  a  passing 
allusion ;  but  now  suggestions  come  to  us  from  psychical  re- 
search that  the  phenomena  of  the  appearances  of  the  Risen  Christ 
may  have  been  given  spiritually,  even  though  His  body  remained 
in  the  grave.  And  this  seems  to  many  a  veritable  escape  from 
all  the  questions  of  criticism  and  from  all  the  inextricable  con- 
fusions inherent  in  our  Gospel  narratives.  The  almost  irrecon- 
cilable nature  of  the  narratives  of  the  Resurrection  is  a  cause  of 
stumbling  for  many.  Up  to  the  Crucifixion  the  Synoptists  use 
a  common  tradition  which  can  be  traced  like  a  thread  of  gold 
through  all  the  minor  differences.  But  in  the  accounts  of  the 
Resurrection  the  Evangelists  agree  in  little  else  than  the  supreme 
and  dominating  belief  that  it  really  occurred.  The  Apostles 
seem  never  to  have  attempted  to  frame  a  harmonious  narrative  of 
this  awe-inspiring  event.  Such  an  omission  can  only  be  ex- 
*  Dr.  Orr,  in  the  Expositor,  April,  1908,  p.  352. 


Jesus  Rises  and  Appears  493 

plained  by  the  circumstance  that  they  so  lived  under  the  imme- 
diate realization  of  the  Resurrection-faith  that  the  reality  of 
the  Fact  appeared  to  them  beyond  disproof.  Our  point  of  view 
is  different  from  theirs.  "  The  failure  of  the  oral  tradition 
just  where  its  testimony  is  most  needful,  is  matter  for  profound 
regret;  but  it  should  be  distinctly  understood  that,  whatever  it 
may  mean,  it  does  not  mean  that  the  Apostles  knew  nothing  of 
the  Resurrection,  or  had  any  doubt  regarding  it.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  believed  in  it  with  exultant  faith,  and  it  was  the 
burden  of  their  preaching."  Further,  "  when  the  Synoptists 
undertook  the  task  of  composing  their  Gospels,  they  laboured 
under  this  disadvantage,  that  the  Apostles  had  dispersed  in  pros- 
ecution of  their  missions,  and  were  inaccessible  for  enquiry  and 
consultation.  In  the  oral  tradition  they  had,  so  far  as  it  went, 
an  amplitude  of  trustworthy  material;  but  it  stopped  short  at 
the  Crucifixion,  and  for  the  episode  of  the  Resurrection  they  had 
to  be  content  with  such  information  as  they  could  glean  among 
believers."  ^  Such  an  admission  as  this  from  such  a  source  may 
be  used  by  some  to  depreciate  the  general  evidence  of  the 
Resurrection,  while  increased  emphasis  may  be  placed  on  the 
reality  of  the  appearances.  The  real  understanding  of  history, 
however,  depends  less  upon  literal  exactitude  and  verifiable 
chronology  than  upon  a  sympathetic  response  to  the  atmos- 
phere and  the  persons  of  the  period  under  investigation.  Ac- 
cording to  the  Synoptists,  some  devout  and  sorrowful  women 
who  loved  Jesus  went  to  the  tomb,  taking  aromatics  with  them 
to  embalm  the  body.  When  they  reached  the  place,  however,  they 
found  the  body  had  disappeared;  but  angels  (one  or  two)  met 
them  saying,  "  Why  seek  the  living  among  the  dead  ?  "  or,  stating 
more  affirmatively,  "  He  is  risen.  He  is  not  here."  This  message 
was  carried  by  those  women  to  Peter,  and  that  disciple  in  com- 
pany with  John  ran  to  the  grave  and  saw  that  it  was  empty,  and 
that  the  linen  clothes  were  neatly  folded.  No  evangelist  describes 
the  actual  rising,  but  St.  Matthew  speaks  of  certain  accompani- 
ments. "  And,  behold !  a  great  earthquake  took  place ;  for  an 
angel  of  the  Lord  came  down  from  heaven  and  went  and  rolled 
away  the  stone  and  sat  on  it.  His  countenance  was  like  lightning, 
and  his  raiment  white  like  snow ;  and  for  fear  of  him  the  watch- 
ers shook  and  became  like  dead  men."  This  same  evangelist 
also  affirms  that  the  guards  were  afterwards  bribed  by  the  Jews 
'  Rev.  David  Smith,  In  the  Days  of  His  Flesh,  Intro,  p.  xxxiv. 


494  The  Finished  Work 

to  say  that  while  they  slept  the  disciples  came  and  stole  the 
body — a  story,  says  St.  Matthew,  repeated  "  until  this  day." 
Justin  Martyr  shows  us  that  this  rumour  of  the  theft  of  the  body 
by  the  disciples  was  circulated  in  his  day.^  Now  although  the 
Resurrection-faith  rests  upon  the  appearances  rather  than  upon 
the  scene  of  an  empty  tomb,  yet  we  are  persuaded  that  the  tomb 
was  empty ;  for,  had  the  Body  been  in  the  grave,  it  would  assur- 
edly have  been  exhibited  by  the  enemies  of  the  new  religion  to 
disprove  the  apostolic  message  of  the  Resurrection.  Unable  to 
escape  the  conclusion  that  the  grave  must  have  been  empty,  some 
critics  have  suggested  that  though  the  disciples  were  incapable 
of  fraud  and  long  sustained  deception,  yet  the  Roman  soldiers 
may  have  received  orders  to  remove  or  destroy  the  corpse,  and  so 
prevent  it  from  becoming  an  object  of  adoration.  For  such  a 
supposition  there  is  no  tittle  of  evidence  save  the  fact  that  the 
grave  was  empty. 

7.  It  is  hardly  necessary  in  this  prosaic  attempt  to  state  the 
natural  impressions  made  by  the  Resurrection  narratives  of  the 
Gospel,  to  make  more  than  reference  to  the  rise  of  a  school  of 
mythical  criticism,  the  scholars  of  which  treat  the  New  Testament 
stories  as  though  they  were  simply  derived  from  Babylonian 
mythology.  In  the  hands  of  these  mythologists  the  firm  ground 
of  history  sinks  away,  and  the  records  are  evaporated  into  airy 
dreams  and  legends  of  the  protean  sun-god  Marduk.  Whatever 
influence  upon  the  Gospels  may  have  been  exerted  by  an  oriental 
syncretism  in  general,  and  by  the  Gilgamish  epic  in  particular — 
and  we  are  not  prepared  to  deny  traces  of  such  influence — still,  we 
contend  that  the  concrete  evidence  of  the  Apostle  Paul  and  the 
sober  testimonies  found  in  the  Gospels  cannot  be  so  easily  sub- 
limated into  vaporous  forms  of  the  sun-myth.  The  remarkable 
thing  is  that,  although  fully  conscious  of  the  labyrinthine  con- 
fusions in  the  Gospel  narratives,  they  yet  make  upon  our  minds 
the  impression  that  they  rest  upon  a  real  ground  of  history. 
The  New  Testament  represents,  with  substantial  correctness, 
what  was  believed  by  the  Apostles  themselves  to  have  been  the 
circumstances  and  facts  of  the  origination  of  the  Church;  and  it 
is  not  easy  for  us  to  suppose  that  the  men  who  proved  them- 
selves to  be  genuine  leaders  of  the  New  Religion  were  utterly 
ignorant  of  the  facts  that  supplied  them  with  motives  and  dy- 
'  Dial.  w.  Trypho,  108. 


Jesus  Rises  and  Appears  495 

namic.  Fascinating  though  these  mythological  explanations  prove 
for  the  minds  of  many  learned  men  who  seem  to  us  to  be  pixie- 
led,  we  return  to  the  soberer  judgement  stated  lucidly  by  Dr. 
Swete,  "  The  evidence  is  perplexing,  not  overwhelming,  and  it  is 
certainly  far  from  being  complete ;  in  some  of  the  details  it  may 
be  inexact.  But  the  main  fact  that  the  Lord  rose  again  on  the 
third  day  has  not  been  shaken  by  any  argument  hitherto  ad- 
duced. The  intellectual  difficulty  of  believing  the  Resurrection  of 
our  Lord's  body  to  be  a  baseless  story  will  always  be  greater  than 
the  intellectual  difficulty  of  believing  it  to  be  a  substantial  fact."  ^ 

8.  It  is  not  necessary  to  construct  any  scheme  for  the  har- 
monization of  the  familiar  stories  of  Christ's  post-Resurrection 
appearances ;  the  barest  enumeration  of  them,  in  the  order  which 
appears  to  us  most  probable  but  by  no  means  certain,  will  suffice 
to  recall  the  impressions  which  they  have  made  upon  our  minds. 
The  first  was  to  Mary  Magdalene,  the  second  to  the  other  women 
an  hour  or  two  later.  The  relation  of  these  to  one  another  is  far 
from  clear ;  some  readers  incline  to  treat  the  second  as  a  general- 
ized account  of  the  first,  while  others  place  it  before  the  pathetic 
story  of  the  Lord's  self-disclosure  to  Mary.  Next  came  the  ap- 
pearance to  Peter  in  a  private  and  unrecorded  interview  men- 
tioned by  St.  Paul  and  St.  Luke.  The  third  evangelist  gives  the 
beautiful  and  instructive  account  of  our  Lord's  meeting  and  con- 
verse with  the  two  disciples,  Cleopas  and  another,  on  the  road  to 
Emmaus;  and  a  confirmation  of  this  is  found  in  the  appendix 
to  St.  Mark.  The  fifth  and  last  appearance  on  the  Resurrection 
Day  was  given  to  the  assembled  disciples  at  Jerusalem  when 
Thomas  was  absent.  St.  John  relates  the  next  disclosure  eight 
days  after,  which  led  to  the  wonderful  confession  of  faith  by  the 
disciple  who  had  doubted,  and,  further,  the  exquisite  narrative  of 
the  meeting  of  Jesus  with  the  Seven  Fishermen  at  the  Lake  side, 
and  the  subsequent  restoration  of  Simon  in  the  threefold  confes- 
sion of  love.  St.  Paul  writes  of  the  Risen  Christ  having  been 
seen  by  over  five  hundred  brethren  at  once,  the  greater  number 
of  whom  remained  alive  when  he  wrote  to  the  Corinthians — an 
occasion  probably  identical  with  that  related  by  St.  Matthew 
as  having  been  appointed  to  take  place  in  Galilee.  The  great 
commission  which  St.  Matthew  states  was  given  on  that  occa- 
sion may  h^ve  really  been  spoken  later  on  the  Mount  of  Olives. 
*H.  B.  Swete,  Bxpos.  Times,  Feb.  1903,  p.  214. 


496  The  Finished  Work 

"  Then,"  says  St.  Paul,  "  He  appeared  to  James ;  then  to  all 
the  apostles;  and,  last  of  all,  as  unto  one  born  out  of  due  time. 
He  appeared  unto  me  also."  The  final  appearance  to  the  Eleven, 
mentioned  as  we  have  stated  by  St.  Paul,  as  also  by  St.  Luke,  and 
in  the  appendix  to  St.  Mark,  was  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  where 
the  Risen  Lord  is  recorded  to  have  pronounced  His  august  claim, 
and  to  have  given  the  disciples  their  world-wide  commission: 

"  All  authority  has  been  given  to  Me  in  heaven  and  upon  earth : 
Go  then  and  make  disciples  of  all  nations, 
Baptize  them  into  the  name  of  the  Father  and  the  Son  and  the  Holy 

Spirit ; 
Teach  them  to  observe  all  that  ever  I  commanded  you : 
And  lo,  I  Myself  am  with  you  all  the  days  until  the  close  of  the  age! " 

With  that  commission  may  have  been  joined  the  promise  of 
spiritual  equipment :  "  But  ye  shall  receive  power  after  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  come  upon  you ;  and  ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  Me 
both  in  Jerusalem  and  in  all  Judasa,  and  in  Samaria,  and  unto  the 
uttermost  part  of  the  earth."  St.  Luke  sums  up  these  Chris- 
tophanies  with  characteristic  simplicity :  Jesus  "  shewed  Himself 
alive  after  his  passion  by  many  proofs,  appearing  unto  them  by 
the  space  of  forty  days,  and  speaking  the  things  concerning  the 
kingdom  of  God." 

9.  The  Gospel  records  of  the  post-Resurrection  appearances 
of  Jesus  suggest  that  the  Body  had  not  simply  been  reanimated, 
but  that  it  had  been  subjected  to  some  marvellous  transformation, 
and  henceforth  possessed  attributes  which  made  it  altogether 
responsive  to  His  Spiritual  Will.  It  may  be  that  during  those 
forty  days  our  Lord  Himself  was  passing  through  some  process 
of  glorification,  the  consummation  of  which  was  marked  by  the 
Ascension.  Another  motive  for  this  delay  of  the  final  act  of  the 
Analepsis  was  the  purpose  of  Jesus  to  present  Himself  to  His 
disciples  at  stated  intervals,  so  that  they  might  be  fully  con- 
vinced of  His  Resurrection,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  disciplined 
into  an  abiding  consciousness  of  His  Presence  when  unseen. 
The  handful  of  dust  which  constituted  the  material  of  His  Body 
had  taken  on  new  attributes  and  potencies,  and  was  made  per- 
fectly subservient  to  the  Spirit,  appearing  and  disappearing, 
materializing  and  dissolving  at  the  behests  of  His  loving  Will. 
When  He  chose  that  body  became  visible  and  tangible,  and  was 
seen  to  bear  the  marks  of  the  nails,  and  with  it  He  ate  and  drank 


Jesus  Rises  and  Appears  497 

with  His  disciples;  on  the  other  hand,  at  any  moment  He  could 
vanish  without  the  opening  of  doors,  or  the  eyes  of  His  com- 
panions might  be  "  holden  "  that  they  did  not  recognize  Him. 
In  these  appearances  we  discern  the  prophetic  reconciliation  be- 
tween Spirit  and  Matter  which  must  surely  constitute  the  goal 
of  human  redemption.  Men  have  learned  too  well  the  limitations 
of  their  knowledge  to  venture  any  dogmas  concerning  the  nature 
of  matter;  we  can  only  surmise  that  it  is  the  product  of  Spirit, 
and  has  been  constituted  the  medium  of  spiritual  operations  and 
of  earthly  fellowship.  Some  of  its  marvellous  potencies  are  re- 
vealed as  it  yields  to  the  moulding  and  mastery  of  life.  In 
taking  up  the  body  once  again,  Jesus  assumed  no  more  a  cor- 
ruptible organism;  He  transfigured  it  with  Spiritual  force,  and 
made  it  the  instrument  of  His  deathless  passion  to  execute  the 
Will  of  the  Father.  It  had  been  sown  in  weakness  and  was 
raised  in  power ;  sown  a  natural  body,  it  had  been  raised  a  spirit- 
ual body.  Some  such  miracle  as  this  was  needed  to  demon- 
strate the  absolute  conquest  of  Spiritual  Life  over  death.  Those 
brief  interviews  between  the  Risen  Jesus  and  the  disciples  im- 
pressed upon  the  minds  of  the  latter  the  reality  of  their  Lord's 
continuing  life,  and  communicated  to  them  also  a  sense  of  His 
transcendent  dignity;  the  old  familiarity  passes  away,  but  with 
the  growth  of  deeper  reverence  there  remained  and  grew  a 
reciprocal  love. 

lo.  Although  it  does  not  come  within  the  scope  of  our  purpose 
to  deduce  the  doctrinal  implications  of  the  Resurrection  of  Jesus, 
at  least  we  may  legitimately  indicate  some  of  its  effects  upon 
men's  conception  of  the  meaning  of  all  the  steps  which  led  up 
to  it  in  the  preparatory  ministry.  The  Resurrection  is  the  crown 
of  the  Incarnation;  and,  viewed  from  this  elevation,  the  whole 
life  is  seen  afresh  to  be  charged  with  Divine  Revelation.  It 
affects  the  retrospect  of  the  earthly  ministry  quite  as  much  as  the 
subsequent  history  of  His  Church.  From  this  standpoint,  the 
whole  life  of  Jesus  is  perceived  to  be  governed  by  God's  gracious 
world-purpose.  Just  as,  in  the  development  of  an  organism,  a 
stage  is  reached  at  last  when  a  higher  principle  of  life  reacts 
upon  the  accumulated  results  of  the  previous  processes,  thereby 
lifting  the  creature  to  a  higher  plane  whence  may  be  unfolded 
new  potentialities,  so  in  the  Resurrection  we  meet  with  a  new 
transforming  energy  which  imposes  an  enlarged  and  glorious 


498  The  Finished  Work 

interpretation  upon  all  the  steps  and  incidents  which  led  up  to 
such  a  consummation.  The  Resurrection  set  the  disciples  in  a 
new  relation  to  the  facts  of  the  Ministry  of  Jesus,  so  that  they 
became  growingly  intelligent  of  the  implications  and  issues  of  His 
life,  and  they  became  empowered  to  appropriate  and  apply  the 
whole  body  of  Truth  communicated  by  Him  and  in  Him.  Their 
entrance  into  light  came  through  the  Resurrection-faith  and 
Spiritual  baptism ;  they  became  possessors  of  the  Living  Spirit  of 
Christ  and  so  were  guided  into  an  ever  enlarging  heritage  of  truth. 
From  that  memorable  third  day,  there  dawned  upon  them  the 
faith  in  the  Heavenly  Messiahship  of  the  Christ,  and  they  came 
to  acknowledge  Him  as  the  universal  Lord.  The  very  Cross  was 
bathed  in  the  splendour  of  this  light,  so  that  the  apostles  declared 
that  Jesus  died  for  our  sins  and  was  raised  for  our  justification. 
If  Jesus  were  not  risen,  the  Ministry  of  Jesus  would  have  been 
simply  another  enigma  added  to  the  mystery  of  man's  struggle 
against  destiny.  Apart  from  the  Resurrection,  Jesus  is  the 
riddle  of  the  world:  contemplating  Him,  some  will  judge  Him 
to  be  our  noblest  Teacher ;  others  will  deem  Him,  if  not  the  arch- 
blasphemer,  then  the  most  pitiable  of  self-deluded  egoists.  The 
Resurrection  changes  everything :  it  is  a  Pisgah-height,  where  the 
atmosphere  is  translucent,  and  whence  the  vision  is  clarified ;  and, 
looking  from  this  coign  of  vantage,  we  trace  even  through  the 
Humiliation  the  Revelation  of  God  and  Eternal  Life.  The 
Divine  has  been  translated  for  us  into  the  terms  of  our  humanity. 
The  Resurrection  is  the  historic  declaration  of  God's  reconcilia- 
tion with  man ;  it  is  an  event  which  lifts  man  above  the  realm  of 
evanescent  phenomena  into  the  sphere  of  Spiritual  and  eternal 
relationships.  The  Resurrection  symbolizes,  as  nothing  else  can, 
the  conquest  of  the  Soul  over  Sin  and  death;  and,  without  this 
grand  denouement,  God's  revelations  would  all  seem  imperfect. 
The  history  of  the  strong  Son  of  God,  from  the  Cradle  to  the 
Cross,  from  the  Crucifixion  to  the  Ascension,  constitutes  a 
ground  of  spiritual  hope  for  all  mankind ;  it  demonstrates  the 
action  of  God  on  man's  behalf,  and  reveals,  in  gracious  light,  the 
motive  and  goal  of  our  creation. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  REGNANT  BUT  VEILED  CHRIST 

I.  We  have  now  reached  a  point  in  our  study  of  the  Ministry 
of  Jesus  similar  to  that  arrived  at  by  the  Apostles  after  the 
Ascension.  Those  ten  days  must  have  been  filled  with  recollec- 
tions, reflections  and  inferences.  Their  certainty  concerning  the 
Resurrection  materially  affected  all  their  remembrances  of  Jesus. 
Hitherto  they  have  looked  upon  the  Ministry  of  Jesus  in  a 
broken  and  sectional  manner,  finding  in  the  current  events  much 
that  was  strange  and  inexplicable.  They  had  seen  successive  inci- 
dents, various  phases,  and  it  had  seemed  to  them  that  the  Mas- 
ter's life  was  full  of  darkness  as  well  as  light,  of  gracious  har- 
monies and  partial  dissonances,  of  self-conscious  power  and  singu- 
lar weaknesses ;  but  now  they  reached  the  summit  of  Olivet  and 
saw  that  ministry  steadily  and  saw  it  whole.  They  recalled 
the  large,  pure  utterances  of  the  Teacher,  and  all  the  parts  grew 
into  an  impressive  unity,  charged  with  the  conviction  and  author- 
ity of  the  Personal  force  of  Jesus.  They  remembered  His  acts, 
and  now  all  appeared  so  beautifully  simple  and  so  grandly  har- 
monious with  the  impression  He  had  made  upon  them.  Scenes 
of  suffering  undeserved,  of  apparent  failures,  of  agony  pathet- 
ically confessed,  of  triumphant  hopes  and  predictions  of  vic- 
torious issues,  all  came  back  to  memory,  and  were  now  reflected 
upon  sub  specie  ceternitatis;  and  thus  they  began  to  discern  that 
God  had  been  working  in  and  through  their  Master's  life  as 
well  as  man.  Perhaps  some  great  luminous  words  of  Jesus 
spoken  during  the  forty  days  had  aided  them  in  seeing  that  His 
life-work  not  only  constituted  a  unity  in  itself,  but  also  formed 
an  integral  part  of  the  single,  all-embracing  purpose  of  God  in 
our  world. 

"This  sequence  of  the  soul's  achievements  here, 
Being,  as  I  find  much  reason  to  conceive. 
Intended  to  be  viewed  eventually 
As  a  great  whole,  not  analyzed  to  parts. 
But  each  part  having  reference  to  all."  * 

*  R.  Browning,  Cleon. 
499 


500  The  Finished  Work 

That  this  unity  had  not  been  destroyed  by  death  had  been 
demonstrated  by  post-Resurrection  appearances  which  had  pro- 
duced in  the  apostles'  minds  an  absolute  certitude  which  made 
them  ready  and  glad  to  die  rather  than  cease  to  bear  witness  for 
Christ  Jesus.  Throughout  their  experiences  during  the  past  forty 
days,  it  seemed  to  them  that  the  Risen  Lord  had  designed  to 
impress  upon  their  minds  the  fact  of  His  continuing  Messianic 
ministry  and  abiding  Spiritual  Presence.  "  When  we  consider 
this  we  shall,  in  regard  to  the  utterances  in  which  He  promises 
to  return  to  His  disciples  and  be  seen  by  them  after  a  short 
period  of  separation,  be  forced  to  the  explanation  that  He 
thought  of  such  a  permanent  Spiritual  reunion  with  His  dis- 
ciples as  would  make  Him  in  their  consciousness  living  in  spite 
of  His  death,  and  near  in  spite  of  earthly  separation.  .  .  .  Yet, 
on  the  other  hand,  Jesus  did  not  think  of  a  merely  subjective 
inward  idea  of  the  disciples  as  had  no  corresponding  reality ; 
but  He  was  certain  that  as  exalted  to  the  Heavenly  life  with 
God,  He  would  stand  in  real  fellowship  with  His  disciples,  who 
would  be  inwardly  joyful ;  therefore  His  saying  that  they  would 
see  Him  corresponds  to  the  other  saying  that  He  would  Himself 
come  to  them  and  would  see  them."  ^  The  Resurrection  and  the 
Ascension  recalled  such  predictions  to  their  minds  and  verified 
them  in  experience.  Such  supernatural  culmination  of  His  min- 
istry placed  it  beyond  doubt  that  death  could  not  dissolve  the 
unity  of  His  Person,  nor  terminate  His  spiritual  ministry  in 
the  community  of  God  and  mankind.  In  saying  that  we  had 
reached  a  like  stage  of  thought — of  recollection,  reflection  and 
inference — as  the  disciples,  waiting  in  Jerusalem  between  the 
Ascension  and  the  day  of  complete  Spiritual  Baptism,  we  mean 
that  the  study  of  the  Ministry  of  Jesus  has  produced  in  our 
minds  the  conviction  that  He  is  the  abiding  Factor  in  our 
world's  history. 

2.  The  disciples  became  possessed  and  were  dominated  by 
the  Spirit  of  the  living  Christ.  One  of  the  objects  of  the  post- 
Resurrection  Christophanies  was  to  open  their  understandings ; 
the  Risen  Jesus  communicated  to  them  anticipations  of  the  Pen- 
tecost :  "  He  breathed  on  them,  and  saith  unto  them.  Receive  ye 
the  Holy  Ghost."  As  we  have  seen,  the  appearances  are  im- 
bedded too  centrally  in  the  Gospels  to  be  eliminated,  and  the 
*  Wendt,  The  Teaching  of  Jesus,  pp.  296-298. 


The  Regnant  but  Veiled  Christ  501 

records  suggest  that  our  Lord  presented  Himself  to  the  assembled 
disciples  on  the  successive  Sundays  between  the  Crucifixion  and 
the  Ascension,  and  so  caused  the  substitution  of  the  first  day 
of  the  week  for  the  Jewish  Sabbath  throughout  the  Christian 
Church.  We  also  find  presumptive  evidence  for  a  belief  that 
our  Lord's  instructions  during  those  days  really  constituted  the 
foundation  of  the  subsequent  teachings  of  the  Apostles.^  The 
doctrines  attributed  to  Peter  and  Paul  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
become  explicable  when  we  recall  St.  Luke's  affirmation  that 
before  He  ascended,  the  Risen  Jesus  explained  to  His  disciples 
that  the  Law,  the  Prophets  and  the  Psalms  had  shadowed  forth 
the  eternal  counsel  of  God  and  had  adumbrated  His  own  Life, 
Death  and  Resurrection.  Such  a  belief  should  not  be  used  to 
.fix  upon  the  Old  Testament  interpretations  which  literary  and 
historical  criticism  must  reject ;  for,  since  the  Hebrew  Scriptures 
are  as  full  of  the  Humanities  as  the  literature  of  Greece,  it  is  but 
natural  to  find  in  them  prefigurings  and  types  of  the  one  perfect 
Ideal  realized  in  history  by  our  Lord.  "  The  burden  of  the 
Old  Testament  is  just  that  relationship  of  the  personal  Spirit  of 
man  to  the  personal  Spirit  of  God  which  first  finds  its  complete 
expression  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  finds  it  in  Him  through  the  act 
and  experience  of  what  we  call  the  Cross."  ^  They  became 
possessed  of  the  mind  of  Christ,  and  under  the  guidance  of  His 
Spirit,  the  Paraclete  and  Truth-witnesser,  the  disciples  not  only 
regained  a  vivid  remembrance  of  all  the  Master's  teachings  prior 
to  His  death,  but  they  were  led  to  treat  His  ministry.  His  Pas- 
sion, Death  and  Resurrection  as  their  simple  creed  of  fact,  in 
which  was  expressed  the  very  heart  of  God's  purpose  in  our 
world.  "  The  Teaching  of  the  Apostles  was  founded  on  what 
was  to  their  minds  the  concrete  presentation  of  essential  truth, 
the  life,  death  and  Resurrection  of  our  Lord,  and  the  light  thence 
cast  on  God's  eternal  counsel  and  His  plans  of  dealing  with  men. 
As  occasion  required,  they  were  led  to  draw  forth  various  in- 
ferences: but  the  truth  itself  they  recognized  as  subsisting  in 
that  primitive  condensation  of  the  historical  Gospel."  '  While 
giving  full  acknowledgement  of  the  momentous  and  epoch-making 
event  of  the  Pentecost,  we  attribute  to  the  preceding  fifty  days 
the  significance  of  a  birth-time;  for  during  that  brief  interval 

*  Acts  ii.  22-36. 

2  Professor  Du  Bose,  The  Gospel  ace.  to  St  Paul,  p.  22f . 

^  Hort,  The  Way,  The  Truth,  The  Life,  p.  63. 


502  The  Finished  Work 

were  originated  and  germinally  flung  forth  all  the  essential 
doctrines  of  the  Apostolic  Church.  Then  it  was  that  the  society 
of  Jesus,  which  had  been  temporarily  shattered  by  the  tragedy 
of  the  Crucifixion,  was  reconstructed  and  quickened  into  organic 
self-consciousness  and  purpose.  The  appearances  and  instruc- 
tions of  those  days  were  not  vague  and  ineffectual — during  that 
brief  period  the  Risen  Lord  fused  His  disciples  into  a  com- 
munity— not,  indeed,  into  a  hard  and  fast  organization,  but  still 
into  a  conscious  fellowship;  He  also  gave  them  a  fresh  under- 
standing of  the  Divine  Revelation  which  had  received  a  culminat- 
ing expression  in  His  own  history;  and  He  infused  into  their 
souls  something  of  the  spiritual  force  of  His  own  personal 
experience. 

3.  No  little  prejudice  has  been  shown  against  the  belief  that 
Jesus  designed  the  organization  of  His  disciples  into  a  church. 
Such  a  community,  "  externally  bounded  and  inwardly  articu- 
lated," says  Wendt,  "  was  not  contemplated  and  predetermined 
by  Jesus."  But  if  the  Resurrection-faith  were  grounded  in  the 
genuine  appearances  of  Jesus,  it  may  be  easily  conceived  that 
the  Risen  Lord  should  have  given  some  explicit  utterance  to 
His  world-wide  purpose.  The  various  reports  of  the  great 
missionary  commission  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  modifying 
influence  of  oral  transmission,  although  our  Lord  Himself  may 
have  reiterated  His  great  command  upon  several  occasions  with 
natural  variations.  Harmonious  with  this  supposition  is  the 
Johannine  record  of  the  interview  with  the  disciples  by  the 
Sea  of  Tiberias,  when,  seeing  them  drawn  back  into  their  old 
familiar  occupation  and  habits,  the  Risen  Jesus  definitely  com- 
missioned Simon  with  the  Shepherd's  task ;  for  He  did  not  intend 
them  to  fall  back  into  the  conventional  ways  of  ordinary  men — 
they  were  to  be  His  ambassadors.  Strauss  expressed  the  natural 
objection  against  the  apostolic  missionary  commission  when  he 
said  the  formula  "  sounds  so  exactly  as  if  it  had  been  borrowed 
from  the  ecclesiastical  ritual  that  there  is  no  slight  probability 
in  the  supposition  that  it  was  transferred  from  thence  to  the 
mouth  of  Jesus."  The  very  differences  and  difficulties  inherent 
in  the  records  of  such  a  commission  make  it  appear  most  plausible 
that  it  originated  in  the  Church's  subsequent  consciousness  of 
Christ's  world-embracing  work ;  and  a  further  temptation  to 
adopt  this  facile  means  of  escape  from  difficulty  arises  from  an 


The  Regnant  but  Veiled  Christ  503 

apparent  contradiction  between  such  universalism  and  the  Juda- 
istic  limitations  of  the  first  apostolic  propaganda.  A  little  re- 
flection, however,  assures  us  that  behind  the  nationalism  of  the 
first  Petrine  conception  of  the  Gospel  lay  the  universal  ideal 
of  Jesus.  The  implications  of  a  world-wide  faith  lay  in  all  the 
great  characteristic  utterances  of  Jesus.  And  even  were  it  gen- 
erally admitted  that  this  grand  missionary  commission  articu- 
lated the  logic  of  events  in  the  consciousness  of  the  Church,  still 
the  problem  remains  to  account  for  the  rise  of  this  sublime  faith 
in  Christ's  abiding  relation  to  the  Church  and  the  world.  Unless 
we  resort  to  subterfuge  and  evasion,  we  are  compelled  to  postu- 
late the  existence  of  some  great  creative  genius  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Christian  Church,  that  was  at  once  able  to  produce  a  uni- 
versal faith,  and  to  inspire  commonplace  men  with  a  moral  dyna- 
mic which  should  draw  their  lives  into  some  correspondence  with 
the  lofty  ideals  they  proclaimed.  Once  admit  the  fact  of  the 
Resurrection  and  subsequent  appearances,  and  it  is  easily  credible 
that  our  Lord  Himself  organized  His  disciples  into  a  community, 
and  breathed  into  them  this  consciousness  of  His  world-purpose. 
It  is  easy  to  imagine  that  after  their  first  glimpse  of  this  tremen- 
dous destiny  the  disciples  may  have  been  sucked  back  into  a 
lower  Judaistic  phase  and  movement  of  Christian  thought,  and 
that  this  temporary  recession  may  have  been  ultimately  counter- 
acted by  the  inherent  power  of  the  Christ-ideal  and  Spirit  which 
had  taken  possession  of  their  souls.  Much  of  the  criticism  of 
the  Missionary  Commission  and  other  parts  of  the  Gospels  really 
springs  from  an  invincible  repugnance  to  miracles.  The  very 
existence  of  a  supernatural  power  at  work  in  the  world  is  pro- 
hibited by  presuppositions  which  find  no  avowal  by  most  scholars, 
but  which  were  boldly  articulated  by  Strauss.  "  The  totality  of 
finite  things  forms  a  vast  circle,  which  except  that  it  owes  its  ex- 
istence and  laws  to  a  superior  power,  suffers  no  intrusion  from 
without.  This  conviction  is  so  much  a  habit  of  thought  with  the 
modern  world,  that  in  actual  life  the  belief  in  a  supernatural  mani- 
festation, an  immediate  agency,  is  at  once  attributed  to  ignorance 
and  imposture."  ^ 

4.  We  have  the  great  apostolic  charter  and  the  general  state- 
ment that  the  Lord  opened  the  Scriptures  to  their  understand- 
ings; but  besides  this  one  wonders  if  any  rays  of  the  post- 

^  Strauss,  Life  of  Jesus,  p.  78. 


504  The  Finished  Work 

Resurrection  teaching  may  not  be  found  reflected  back  upon  the 
records  of  Christ's  earHer  ministry.  For  instance,  Professor 
Briggs  has  boldly  conjectured  that  the  mystical  discourse  on 
eating  the  flesh  and  drinking  the  blood  of  Jesus  may  belong  to 
this  period  of  the  appearances.^  And  the  same  scholar  makes 
a  suggestion  which  is  not  discordant  with  the  tenor  of  the  in- 
tercessory prayer  that  parts  of  it  may  have  been  uttered  during 
this  epoch-making  interval.  Certainly  our  Lord  speaks  as  though 
the  work  given  Him  to  do  by  the  Father  has  already  been  accom- 
plished ;  the  "  humiliation  "  is  thought  of  as  ended ;  the  curriculum 
of  suffering  and  temptation  lies  behind ;  and  even  the  ministry 
of  training  the  disciples  appears  in  a  retrospective  light,  and  the 
Master  says,  "  While  I  was  with  them,  I  kept  them  in  Thy  name 
which  Thou  hast  given  Me :  yea,  I  guarded  them,  nor  did  one  of 
them  perish  except  the  son  of  perdition,  that  the  scripture  might 
be  fulfilled."  The  hypothesis  that  this  prayer  is  a  sublime  crea- 
tion of  the  evangelist  in  his  romance  of  the  Incarnate  Logos,  does 
away  at  a  stroke  with  all  difficulties  of  chronology ;  but,  if  retained 
as  historical,  there  are  utterances  in  it  which  might  have  been  fitly 
spoken  after  the  Crucifixion.  The  whole  prayer  hinges  on  the 
apostolic  commission,  "  as  Thou  didst  send  Me  into  the  world, 
I  also  sent  them  into  the  world."  His  own  apostolate  has  become 
the  pattern  of  theirs;  His  equipment  is  to  be  shared  also,  and 
as  He  had  been  sanctified  by  His  intuitions  into  God's  truth, 
will  and  glory,  so  henceforth  must  they  be  hallowed  in  a  like 
manner.  Such  a  prayer  might  have  been  uttered  by  the  lake- 
side when,  seeing  how  the  disciples  shrank  from  the  vaster 
obligations  of  their  new  apostolate,  the  Risen  Lord  reclaimed 
them  to  larger  duties  and  gave  them  reassurance  of  adequate 
equipment.  He  was  filled  with  infinite  longings  for  the  realiza- 
tion of  His  Father's  glory  in  the  world,  and  it  is  far  from  im- 
probable that  He  gave  utterance  to  His  passionate  desires  for 
the  sanctification  and  union  of  His  disciples,  and  for  the  saving 
c    the  world  through  them. 

5.  The  third  evangelist  supplements  the  final  commission  by 
a  definition  of  the  evangelic  message  as  one  of  repentance  and 
of  remission  of  sins,  and  also  by  a  promise  of  power.  "  Behold, 
I  send  forth  the  promise  of  My  Father  upon  you ;  but  tarry  ye 
in  the  city,  until   ye  be  clothed   with   power   from  on   high." 

^  New  Light,  etc.,  p.  i22f. 


The  Regnant  but  Veiled  Christ  505 

Whether  we  accept  this  Lucan  alternative  to  Matthaean  assurance 
of  His  abiding  presence,  or  not,  the  subsequent  work  of  the 
Apostles  can  be  explained  only  as  the  realization  of  both  the 
presence  and  dynamic  of  the  Risen  Christ.  Behind  those  lowly 
men  of  Galilee  stands  the  Christ  clothed  in  the  transcendent 
glory  of  the  Resurrection  and  equipped  with  all  power.  Im- 
perfectly educated  as  they  were,  and  wholly  lacking  in  social 
status  and  wealth,  some  personal  force  was  impelling  these  men 
into  unknown  ways  of  toil  and  experience  of  ultimate  victory. 
Even  if  we  accepted  the  supposition  that  the  Primitive  Church 
originated  its  own  consciousness  of  this  world-wide  mission  which 
the  evangelists  have  rendered  with  such  regal  eloquence,  the 
problem  would  still  remain  to  be  faced,  how  men  lacking  all  the 
elements  of  intellectual  and  social  prestige  could  have  been 
lifted  to  this  exalted  plane  of  thought  and  action.  The  most 
credible  solution  of  the  problem  is  assuredly  the  acceptance  of 
the  tradition  of  the  Gospels  that  Jesus  rose  from  the  dead  and 
presented  Himself  to  His  disciples  at  several  different  times, 
and  having  instructed  them  in  the  mysteries  of  His  life.  Passion 
and  Resurrection,  finally  expressed  His  exultant  consciousness 
of  sovereignty  and  power  in  the  charge  that  they  should  go 
forth  and  win  the  whole  world  into  allegiance  unto  Himself. 

6.  The  first  step  in  the  transcendent  process  of  the  Divine 
Incarnation  involved  a  self-emptying,  or  Kenosis;  and  the  last 
historic  scene  may  be  translated  as  the  Anaplerosis — the  assump- 
tion into  glory.  In  the  language  of  many  scholars  one  is  con- 
scious of  a  vague  feeling  of  uncertainty  about  the  Ascension 
scene.  There  is  a  tendency  to  merge  the  Resurrection  and 
Ascension  together.  St.  Paul  shows  no  consciousness  of  any 
historic  event  dividing  the  appearances  to  the  disciples  from  the 
vision  he  received  of  the  glorified  Lord.  A  hint  seems  to  be 
given  in  the  words  spoken  to  Mary  at  the  sepulchre  in  His  pro- 
hibition against  touching  His  Person  because  He  was  "  not  yet 
ascended " — a  prohibition  that  was  removed  eight  days  later, 
when  He  invited  the  doubting  Thomas  to  touch  the  uneradicated 
stigmata  in  His  hands  and  side.  Some  readers  infer  from  the 
Third  Gospel  that  its  author  believed  that  the  appearances  and 
the  Ascension  all  took  place  on  the  Resurrection-day,  and  that 
the  reference  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  to  the  "  forty  days  " 
signifies,  in  round  numbers,  the  duration  of  the  time  of  subsequent 


506  The  Finished  Work 

Christophanies  which  were  brought  to  a  termination  by  the 
Pentecost.  Dr.  Bernhard  Weiss  says :  "  By  His  Resurrection, 
Jesus,  it  is  true,  does  not  understand  a  resuscitation  to  earthly  life ; 
but  an  exaltation  to  a  state  of  existence  which  is  raised  above  the 
conditions  of  earthly  life ;  but  this  exaltation  is  always  conceived 
of  as  a  resurrection,  i.e.  as  a  restoration  of  His  corporeity,  al- 
though in  a  form  which  is  in  keeping  with  the  Heavenly  life.  .  .  . 
Neither  in  the  prophecy  of  Jesus  nor  in  the  earliest  tradition  is  the 
Ascension  to  Heaven  conceived  of  as  an  epoch-making  event,  so 
far  was  the  latter  from  representing  it  as  an  occurrence  which  was 
perceptible  to  the  senses.  The  Resurrection  (rightly  understood) 
qualifies  Him  of  itself,  for  the  heavenly  life."  ^  Westcott  and 
Hort  gave  the  judgement  that  "  the  Ascension  apparently  did 
not  lie  within  the  proper  scope  of  the  Gospels,  as  seen  in  their 
genuine  texts ;  its  true  place  was  at  the  head  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  as  the  preparation  for  the  day  of  Pentecost,  and  thus 
the  beginning  of  the  history  of  the  Church."  ^  It  is  admittedly 
possible  that,  in  the  account  of  a  visible  Ascension,  there  may 
have  been  precipitated  the  apostolic  assurance  of  the  exaltation 
of  their  Lord.  Such  a  tradition  clothes  the  revelation  of  the 
Glorified  Lord  in  the  forms  of  time  and  space,  and  its  value  may 
lie  in  its  Spiritual  interpretation.  -On  the  other  hand,  attempts 
to  throw  ridicule  upon  the  story  as  contrary  to  modern  astronomic 
conceptions  seem  to  us  unworthy  of  sober  criticism.  In  favour 
of  the  historicity  of  the  tradition,  it  may  be  noted  that  there  is 
an  inherent  fitness  in  the  solemn  passing  of  the  Lord  within 
the  veil,  which  signalized  not  only  the  withdrawal  of  all  tokens 
of  His  corporeal  Presence,  but  the  more  positive  faith  that 
henceforth  He  would  act  as  the  invisible  King-Priest  of  humanity 
within  the  realm  of  spiritual  relationships.  The  disciples'  ques- 
tion, "  Lord,  is  this  the  time  when  Thou  art  to  restore  the  royal 
power  to  Israel  ?  "  which  to  us  seems  so  unseasonable,  with  its 
savour  of  the  old  Jewish  Messianism,  lends  a  touch  of  historical 
reality  to  the  strange  scene.  The  narrative  is  characterized  by 
a  gracious  dignity  and  restraint,  and  stands  free  of  the  usual 
accretions  of  legendary  growths.     The  appearances  of  the  Risen 

*  Bernhard  Weiss,  Biblical  Theology  of  the  New  Testament,  vol.  i.,  p. 
90,  note. 

'  Westcott  and  Hort,  Notes  on  Select  Readings,  Luke  xxiv.  51.  (nal  avs- 
iiro  elc  rov  ovpavdv)  "  Text  was  evidently  inserted  from  an  assumption  that 
a  separation  from  the  disciples  at  the  close  of  the  Gospel  must  be  the 
Ascension." 


The  Regnant  but  Veiled  Christ  507 

Lord  suddenly  ceased,  leaving  no  expectancy  of  any  further 
Christophanies  until  He  should  appear  as  the  angels  announced 
in  the  final  parousia.  At  least  there  is,  in  the  evangelic  narra- 
tive, no  incongruity  with  our  highest  impression  of  the  com- 
pletely spiritualized  nature  of  the  Risen  Lord;  and  when  we  face 
the  difficulty  of  finding  any  mind  in  the  Primitive  Church  capable 
of  such  marvellous  invention,  a  strong  presumption  arises  that 
St.  Luke  has  correctly  delineated  the  final  interview  between 
Jesus  and  His  disciples. 

7.  As  previously  pointed  out,  the  Passion,  Death,  Resurrec- 
tion and  Ascension  are  all  steps  in  one  process  covered  by  St. 
Luke's  phrase,  "  In  the  days  of  His  Analepsis."  "  The  death," 
says  Dr.  Hort,  "  belongs  to  both  periods.  It  is  the  lowest  point 
of  the  descent;  the  testimony  sealed  in  blood,  the  obedience 
perfected  in  sacrifice.  But  it  is  also  the  beginning  of  the  Ascent. 
The  Cross  is  already  a  lifting  up  out  of  the  earth,  a  prophecy 
of  the  lifting  up  into  the  heavens.  God  accepts  the  sacrifice, 
raises  His  Son  from  the  dead  as  by  a  second  birth,  and  exalts 
Him  to  sit  at  His  own  Right  Hand  till  He  has  put  His  enemies 
under  His  feet."  ^  The  Ascension  completed  the  Resurrection ; 
it  was  the  symbolic  demonstration  of  the  Father's  approval  of 
His  Son's  work  in  the  world,  and  it  became  a  gracious  prophecy 
of  the  ultimate  destiny  of  the  race  into  which  Christ  had  entered. 
The  records  of  His  earthly  Ministry,  although  of  higher  spiritual 
value  for  mankind  than  all  the  discoveries  of  science  and  philoso- 
phy, are  sealed  by  the  Ascension  as  only  the  prelude  to  the 
Messianic,  high-priestly  work  of  our  Lord  which  will  continue 
until  the  end  of  the  age.  The  tragedy  of  Calvary  could  not  be 
obliterated  from  memory ;  but  henceforth  it  was  transfused  with 
Divine  and  glorious  meanings.  The  idea  was  stamped  upon  the 
Church  that,  while  our  Lord  would  no  more  dwell  among  them 
in  the  flesh.  He  would  come  again  in  Spirit,  and,  although  hidden 
from  the  world,  He  would  be  verifiably  present  in  the  minds 
of  His  followers.  The  Holy  Spirit  which  came  upon  them  in 
power  was  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  by  whose  operation  the  facts 
of  the  previous  ministry  were  recalled  and  reproduced  in  the 
experiences  of  those  who  acknowledged  Him  to  be  the  Lord. 
"  After  going  up  on  high,  He  led  captives  captive ;  He  gave 
gifts  to  men.  Now  what  does  the  word  He  went  up  mean, 
'  Dr.  Hort,  The  Way,  The  Truth,  The  Life,  p.  151. 


508  The  Finished  Work 

except  this:  that  He  also  descended  into  the  lower  regions  of 
the  earth?  He  who  descended  is  the  same  as  He  who  ufefit  up 
high  above  all  heavens,  that  He  might  fill  all  things."  The 
Christian  religion  is  not  constituted  by  a  set  of  abstract  beliefs, 
nor  even  by  memories  of  the  historic  life  of  Jesus,  valuable 
as  these  will  ever  be  for  our  instruction,  but  by  the  continued 
activity  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  in  every  age.  Imperfect  though 
our  outward  and  visible  organizations  may  be,  they  are  still  the 
instruments  through  which  the  Immanent  Christ  continues  His 
Ministry  in  the  world.  The  internecine  conflicts,  jealousies  and 
schisms  of  the  Christian  Church  are  the  results  of  inadequate 
apprehensions  of  Christ's  Spirit,  and  they  have  obstructed  the 
outflow  of  the  power  of  the  exalted  Lord ;  and  yet  so  mighty 
are  the  workings  of  this  indwelling  Spirit-Presence,  these  very 
barriers  have  been  made  to  contribute  toward  the  fuller  explica- 
tion of  His  manifoldness. 

8.  In  treating  of  the  continuing  ministry  of  our  Lord,  imma- 
nence ought  never  to  be  torn  apart  from  the  antithetic  term  of 
His  transcendence.  The  eloquent  writer  to  the  Hebrews  con- 
ceived the  earthly  experiences  of  Jesus  to  be  a  discipline,  educa- 
tion and  purification  of  the  perfected  Priest  of  Humanity ;  having 
prepared  for  His  unique  Ministry,  He  offered  up  Himself  as  a 
sacrifice ;  then  He  was  raised  from  the  dead  and  exalted  to  a 
state  of  Divine  honour,  and  sat  down  at  the  Right  Hand  of  the 
Sovereignty  on  High.  The  work  of  Jesus  was  not  evanescent, 
nor  could  it  be  comprised  within  the  little  span  of  His  earthly 
course:  it  is  still  going  on,  perpetuated  by  His  transcendent 
glory  in  the  Heavens,  and  made  effectual  on  earth  by  His 
immanence  in  the  Church ;  and,  according  to  the  New  Testament, 
it  will  be  finally  consummated  in  a  glorious  parousia  when  He 
shall  be  acknowledged  by  all  to  be  the  King.  The  Resurrection 
and  Ascension  are  God's  acknowledgement  of  the  Son,  and  his- 
torically signalize  His  assumption  of  the  prerogatives  and  powers 
of  His  Messianic  reign.  So  remarkable  was  the  impression  made 
by  the  workings  of  the  Christ,  that  rigorous  monotheist  though 
he  was,  St.  Paul  within  twenty  years  of  the  Crucifixion  naively 
coordinated  His  Name  with  the  Father's ;  and  moreover,  in  so 
doing  the  Apostle  but  represented  "  the  common  teaching  of 
all  Christians."  The  centre  of  gravity  for  His  Kingdom  is  not 
in  the  past  or  present,  but  in  the  future:  we  are  drawn  into 


The  Regnant  but  Veiled  Christ  509 

movements  which  have  their  goal  in  a  promised  parousia,  and  all 
of  us  are  controlled,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  by  an  ideal 
which  is  as  yet  only  partially  realized.  The  facts  of  Christian 
history  are  self-attesting,  substantiating  to  our  reason  the  reality 
of  the  Easter-faith.  The  teachings  of  the  Apostles  and  Evan- 
gelists, by  prevailing  over  the  common  instincts  of  the  flesh, 
show  the  power  of  Christ's  veiled  regnancy;  while  the  recorded 
words  attributed  to  the  Risen  Lord  and  the  common  hopes  of 
the  Apostles  lead  the  mind  to  cherish  an  expectation  of  some 
consummation,  some  epochal  demonstration  of  completed  triumph. 
The  study  of  the  Historic  Christ  passes  naturally  into  spiritual 
philosophy;  our  intellectual  quest  becomes  experimental  religion. 
The  Jesus  of  the  Gospels  attests  His  reality  to  modern  faith. 
Historical  enquiry  deepens  the  conviction  of  genuineness  in  the 
recorded  facts  out  of  which  Christianity  has  evolved.  Natural- 
istic bias  gives  way  before  the  clarified  vision  of  the  Man  of 
Nazareth.  The  Person  of  Jesus  is  the  best  guarantee  of  the 
good  faith  of  the  Evangelists.  Behind  the  literature  of  the  New 
Testament  stands  the  indestructible  Figure  of  the  Man.  The 
Gospels  can  only  be  explained  through  the  facts,  and  the  facts 
are  credible  in  their  relation  to  Jesus  Christ.  With  equal  in- 
tensity Modem  Faith  holds  to  the  reality  of  His  Humanity  and 
to  the  authority  of  the  Divine  Revelation  in  Him.  The  naive 
Faith  of  the  Apostles  contained  the  germ  of  our  most  enlightened 
philosophy.  The  Risen  Jesus  has  dominated  nineteen  centuries 
of  history  among  the  most  intellectual  and  progressive  races  of 
the  West.  Today  He  is  challenging  the  East  by  His  undimin- 
ished claims.  Influences  of  spiritual  power  proceed  from  Him 
perennially,  and  His  continuing,  mediatorial  ministry  results  in  the 
gradual  uplifting  of  mankind.  Jesus  has  become  the  Objective 
Conscience  of  our  race:  His  Gospel  is  the  inexhaustible  fount 
of  spiritual  inspiration :  His  Divine  Kingdom  is  the  norm  of  a 
universal  community :  love  of  Him  is  constituting  a  bond  of 
human  brotherhood  and  is  the  directive  force  of  all  that  is  noblest 
and  best  in  the  world ;  while  faith  in  His  Divine-Human  Person 
is  the  secret  of  a  virile  and  exalted  theism.  This  faith  m.ay  be 
summed  up  in  the  threefold  formula :  Christ  has  come :  He  is 
daily  coming  in  spiritual  power;  and  He  will  come  to  bring 
humanity  to  its  goal. 

THE  END 


INDEX 


Abbott,    Dr.    E.    A.,    quoted,   362; 

cited,  469 

Adultery,  woman  taken  in,  392 

Analects   (Confucian),  quoted,   156 

Analepsis  of  Jesus  (Passion,  Death, 

Resurrection,     and     Ascension), 

f oregleams    of,    325 ;    perfected, 

507 

Annas,  high  priest,  471 

Annunciation  of  the  Kingdom 
(Book  II),  71 

Anti-Christ  of  Judaism,  in  Jesus, 
88,  137 

Apocalypse,  and  prophecy,  98;  of 
Jesus,  416 

Apocalyptic  utterances,  differently 
recorded,  420;  in  pagan  mythol- 
ogy, 422 

Apostles,  naming  of,  143 

Apostolate,  the  new,  135 

Archelaus,  42 

Aristotle  and  Jesus,   155 

Arrest  of  Jesus,  469 

Ascension  of  Jesus,  505 

Ascetic  school  of  John  the  Baptist, 
76 

Attack  upon  Jesus,  and  counter- 
attack, 387 

Augustine,  quoted,  51,  316 


Bacon,   Lord,  quoted,   116 

Bacon,   Prof.,   quoted,  218 

Balfour,  A.  J.,  quoted,  11 1 

Baptism,  John's,  47;  of  Jesus  by 
John,  50;  symbolism  of,  54 

Bar-Timasus  healed,  353 

Baur,  F.  C,  quoted,  273,  409,  490 

Beatitudes,  the,  151 

Beginning  of  Conflict  (Book  IV), 
179 

Bengel,  cited,  405 

Bethesda,  182 

Betrayal,  the,  468 

Breach  between  Jesus  and  Juda- 
ism, 122 

Bread,  the  mystic,  243,  442 

Briggs,  Dr.  C.  A.,  quoted,  172,  i8r, 
194,  222;  cited,  426,  441,  448,  504 


Brooke,  Stopford,  cited,  363 
Brothers  of  Jesus,  37,  196 
Browning,  Robert,  quoted,  81,  149, 

499 
Bruce,  Dr.,  cited,  92,  406;  quoted, 

484 
Buddha,    ethic    of,    atheistic,    156; 

and    Jesus,     174,    274,   287,    422, 

504 
Burkitt,  F.  C,  quoted,  130,  217,  220, 

351,  446;   cited,  474 


Caesarea  Philippi,  265 

Caesar's  tribute,  390 

Caiaphas,  227,  231,  390,  471 

Caird,    Prof.    A.,   quoted,   316,    322 

Cairns,  Rev.  D.  S.,  quoted,   112 

Campbell,  McLeod,  quoted,  484 

Cana,  91 

Capernaum,  245,  256,  260,  305 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  quoted,  66 

Carpenter,  Prof.  J.  E.,  quoted,  421 

Caspari,  cited,  365 

Celsus,  quoted,  261,  323,  462 

Chesterton,  G.  K.,  quoted,  358 

Childlikeness  is  greatness  in  New 

Kingdom,  307 
Chinese  Confucian,  quoted,  109 
Christ,   from  ideal  to  historic,  32; 
risen  Jesus  regnant  but  veiled  as 
the,  499 
Christ-ideal,  of  the  Gospels  proto- 
plasm   of    a    new    theology,    19; 
sublimation  of  Jewish  Messianic 
hope,  22;   realized  in  Jesus,  32; 
as   held   by   Jesus,   spiritual,   not 
political,  89 
Christianity  and  Socialism,  313 
Church,   Dean   R.   W.,  quoted,   23, 

176 
Church,  the  Christian,  301,  502;  of 
the  Messiah  contemplated  by  Je- 
sus,  311,   319;    commissioned   by 
risen  Christ,  502  et  seq. 
Citizenship  in  God's  kingdom  means 

sonship,   105 
Clement  of  Alexandria,  quoted,  471 
Clodd,  E.,  quoted,  423 


511 


512 


Index 


Coleridge,     E.     P.,     trans,     from 

Sophocles,  270 
Collingwood,  quoted,   150 
Commandments,  the  two  great,  396 
Conflict    between    Jesus    and    the 

Hierarchy,  180 
Confucius,    cited,   23;   quoted,    156, 

317 

Contemporary  witnesses  of  Jesus, 
198 

Continuity  of  Jesus'  self-descrip- 
tion, 124 

Controversial  element  in  Jesus' 
teaching,  127 

Correspondences  between  O.  T. 
prophecies  and  Gospel  events, 
367 

Costelli,  D.,  quoted,  100 

Crawley,  E.,  quoted,  432 

Criticism,  to  consider  Gospels  in 
whole  before  detail,  20;  not  to 
exclude  constructive  imagination, 
30 

Cross,  the  way  of  the,  471 

Crucifixion,  the,  479 

Cup,  the,  at  the  Paschal  meal,  441 


Divine  Sonship  of  Jesus,  27, 

Divinity  of  Jesus,  59 

Divorce,  333 

Dods,    Marcus    W.,    quoted,    185, 

190,  198,  393,  438 
Du  Bose,  Prof.,  quoted,  501 
Dupuis,  quoted,  431 


Eager,  Dr.  A.  R.,  quoted,  440 
Edersheim,  quoted,  378,  475 
Education  of  Jesus,  38 
Egoism    of    Jesus,    100,    193,    200, 

248 
Elmslie,  Prof.,  61 
Emerson,  R.  W.,  quoted,  124 
Entombment  of  Jesus,  482 
Epoch-makers,  87 
Ethic  of  Buddha  atheistic,  156;  of 

discipleship,  156 
Eucharist,  the  original,  442 
Eusebius,  cited,  406 
Evangelism,   original   and   modern, 

Evangelists,  training  of,   167 
Evolution,  mistake  about,  357 


Dalman,  quoted,  97 

Dante,   quoted,   56,   57;   cited,   357, 

434 
Daughters  of  Jerusalem,  479 
Davidic  descent  of  Messiah,  398 
Davids,  Rhys,  quoted,  34 
Davidson,  Prof.  A.  B.,  quoted,  318, 

426,  427,  429,  444 
Days    of    the    Preparation    (Book 

I),  17 
Dead  raised,  the,  114,  119,  215 
Death,  release  of  germinal  potency, 

413 
Demonology  of  New  Testament,  62, 

118,  302 
De  Ponte,  Louis,  quoted,  191,  480 
Despised  and  rejected,  25s 
De  Zwaan,  J.,  quoted,  468 
Diatheke-Bertth,  quoted,  444 
Didache,    The,    quoted,    as    to    the 

Eucharistic  meal,  442 
Difference  between  Jesus  and  John, 

80;  and  all  predecessors,  100 
Discipleship,    candidates    for,    315, 

317 
Disciples,  of  Jesus,  the  calling  of, 

138,  140;  of  the  Messiah,  299 
Disillusionment  of  the  people,  252 


Faith,  the,  behind  the  Gospels  (In- 
tro.), 9;  a  temptation,  67;  a  sine 
qua  non  of  Christ's  miracles,  117 

Fall,  the,  358 

Family  of  Jesus,  37 

Father,  seeing  the,  454 

Fatherhood  and  Sonship  root-con- 
ception of  ethic  of  Jesus,  158-9 

Feeding  of  the  multitude,  231  ; 
analysis  of  the  accounts,  237; 
were  there  two?  260 

Fellowship  of  Jesus  with  God,  59 

Fig  tree  cursed,  376 

Filial  spirit  of  Jesus,  50 

Finished  Work,  The  (Book  IX), 
457 

First  Three  Christian  Centuries, 
quoted,  273 

Forgiveness  of  sins,  126 

Forsyth,  Dr.,  quoted,   127 

Fourth  Gospel,  discussion  of,  217; 
plan  of,  221 ;  spiritual  insight 
rather  than  historicity,  244;  may 
correct  errors  of  Synoptics,  353; 
sums  up  Jesus'  last  utterances  in 
the  temple,  389 

Fritzsche,  cited,  469 

Furrer,  quoted  by  Bruce,  481 


Index 


513 


Gautama,  and  Jesus,  174,  274,  504; 
transfiguration  of,  287;  to  re- 
appear, 422 

Gentile  embassy  to  Jesus,  tradition 
of,  406 

Gethsemane,  461 

God,  Kingdom  of,  97,  100;  oneness 
of  Jesus  with,  115,  389;  Son  of, 
57,  58;  sovereignty  of,  message 
of  Jesus,  96 

Godet,  cited,  382 ;  quoted,  392 

Golden-age  dreams  of  Israel  in 
future,  not  past,  86 

Gore,  cited,  146 

Gospels,  the,  the  Faith  behind,  9; 
subjectivity  of,  10-12;  formative 
influences,  12-15;  presupposed 
ideal  of,  19;  blending  of  con- 
trasted elements  in,  332 

Greek  poets,  philosophers  and 
artists  prophets  of  ideal  em- 
bodied in  Jesus,  408,  411 

Greeks  desire  to  see  Jesus,  403 

Green,  Prof.  T.  H.,  quoted,  409, 
412 

Greenvsrell,  Dora,  quoted,  343 

Gwatkin,  Prof.,  quoted,  209,  250, 
300,  331 


Harnack,  Adolf,  quoted,  11,  485 
Hart,  J.  H.  A.,  quoted,  217 
Healing  power  of  Jesus,  117 
Hegel,  G.  W.  F.,  quoted,  277,  322 
Heine,  Heinrich,  cited,  158 
Herod  Antipas,  42,  82,  213;  ques- 
tions Jesus  in  vain,  477 
Herod  the  Great,  42 
Herodians    allied    with    Pharisees, 

389 
Hesiod,  quoted,  317 
Hibbert  Journal,  quoted,  218 
Hierarchy  and  Jesus,  the,  181 
Holy    Ghost,    see    Spirit;    descent 

upon  Jesus,  60 
Hort,    Dr.,    quoted,    118,    121,    225, 

454,  501,  507 
Hour  and  the  Cup,  459 


Incarnation  or  apotheosis?  28 
Influence    of    Jesus    on    contempo- 
raries, 122 
Intellectual   influences   of   the   time 
do  not  account  for  Christianity, 
26 


Interpolation,    the    Great,    in    St. 

Luke,  192,  207,  326 
Isolation  of  Jesus,  268 
Israel,  first  to  be  evangelized,  171 ; 

day  of  grace  for,  lost,  375,  385 


Jericho  to  Bethany,  351 

Jerusalem,  triumphal  entry  into, 
364;  lament  over,  377;  cleansing 
of  temple  in,  378 

Jesus,  birth,  34;  early  years,  37; 
baptized,  50;  tempted,  58;  and 
John  Baptist,  73 ;  early  ministry, 
86;  message  of,  96;  miracles  of, 
109;  breach  with  Judaism,  122; 
new  apostolate  of,  135 ;  his  or- 
dination discourse  of  the  new 
kingdom,  146;  the  ethic  of,  156; 
training  of  his  evangelists,  167 ; 
hierarchical  examination  and  de- 
fence of,  181 ;  egoism  of,  193 ; 
Peraean  vision,  the,  207 ;  Lazarus 
raised  by,  215 ;  feeds  the  multi- 
tude, 231;  mysticism  of,  242; 
despised  and  rejected,  255;  con- 
fessed by  Peter,  265 ;  announces 
the  Passion,  277;  transfigured, 
287;  disciples  of,  299;  church  of, 
311;  the  days  of  his  analepsis, 
325;  his  ministry  of  ransom,  338; 
progress  of,  through  Jericho  to 
Bethany,  351 ;  triumphal  entry  of, 
364;  announces  passing  of  Is- 
rael's day  of  grace,  375 ;  attack 
upon,  and  counter-attack,  387 ; 
Greeks  desire  to  see,  403 ;  apoc- 
alypse of,  416;  Last  Supper  of, 
431 ;  valediction  of,  446;  his  hour 
and  his  cup,  459;  the  way  of  his 
cross,  471 ;  rises  and  appears,  485  ; 
risen,  regnant,  but  veiled  as  the 
Christ,  499-509. 

John  the  Baptist,  43 ;  preaching  and 
baptism,  48;  baptizes  Jesus,  52; 
relation  to  Jesus,  73 ;  and  Herod, 
81 ;  doubt  of,  concerning  Jesus, 
82 

Josephus,  quoted,  44,  81,  231,  359, 
394;  cited,  7:^ 

Jowett,   B.,  quoted,   195,  278 

Joyousness  of  Jesus,  75,  80,  91 

Judaism,  breach  of  Jesus  with, 
122 

Judas,  362,  433,  439.  482 

Justin  Martyr,  cited,  494 


514 


Index 


Kahler,  quoted,  113 

Kant,  Immanuel,  quoted,  162,  387 

Keim,  cited,  27 

Kenosis  (self-emptying)  of  Christ, 
29,  60 

Kidd,  B.,  quoted,  153;  cited,  492 

Kingdom  of  God  means,  rather, 
Reign  or  Sovereignty  of  God,  97; 
a  new  epoch,  100 

Kingdom,  the  new,  announced,  7^; 
discussed,  73-107 

Kingship  evaded  and  claimed  by  Je- 
sus, 102 

Knowledge  and  dialectic  skill  of 
Jesus,  397 

Knowling,  Dr.,  quoted,  88 


Lamb  of  God,  the,  78,  329 
Lament  over  Jerusalem,  377 
Lanier,  Sidney,  quoted,  468 
Lao-Tsze,  145 
Last   days   of   the    Passion    (Book 

VIII),  401 
Last  Supper,  the,  431 
Last    things,    in    Jesus'     teaching, 

417 
Last  words  of  Jesus,  481 
Law  and  miracle,  112 
Lazarus,  the  raising  of,  215;  omis- 
sions   and    discrepancies    in    ac- 
count of,  216;  table-guest  with  Je- 
sus, 361 
Lecky,  E.  G.,  quoted,  160,  308 
Lepers  healed,  332 
Life,  continuity  of,  396 
Light  of  the  World,  200 
Limitations  of  Jesus  external,  not 

intellectual  or  spiritual,  106 
Logos,  the,  32 
Loisy,  Abbe,  quoted,  289 


Macdonald,    Dr.    Greville,    quoted, 

407 
Machaerus,  82 

Mackinlay,   Colonel,  quoted,   74 
McNabb,  Rev.  V.,  cited,  289 
Maeterlinck,   quoted,    103 
Mahaffy,  quoted,  38 
Man  is  capax  del,  59 
Man  with  dropsy  healed,  212 
Mark,  the  Evangelist,  470 
Marriage,  395 

Martha  of  Bethany,  203,  219,  224 
Martineau,  James,  quoted,  124 


Mary  Magdalene,  202 

Mary,  mother  of  Jesus,  51 

Mary  of  Bethany,  and  Jesus,  223, 

225 ;  the  anointing  by,  361 
Mazzini,  quoted,  106 
Mencius,  quoted,  60 
Meredith,  G.,  quoted,  318,  326 
Messiah,  his  announcement  of  the 
Passion,    277;    disciples    of    the, 
299;  Church  of  the,  311 
Messiahship  of  Jesus,  87-90,   137 
Messianic,  temptation,  67;  hopes  in 
the   time   of   Jesus,   82:    struggle 
(Book  VII),  349 
Method  of  Jesus,  80,  90;   reverent 

but   revolutionary,   loi 
Mill,  J.  S.,  quoted,   157 
Miracles   of   Jesus,    Cana,   91;    dis- 
cussed, 109— See  under  individual 
headings— Bethesda,    Siloam,   etc. 
Miraculous  power  of  Jesus  accepted 

by  friends  and  enemies,  115 
Mishna,  The,  38 
Missions,   the   two,   as   planned  by 

Jesus,  172 
Moberly,  quoted,  481 
Moffatt     {Historical    New    Test.), 

quoted,  421 
Monica,  51 

Monier-VVilliams,  quoted,  423 
Morris,  G.  S.,  cited,  274 
Moses,  ^^^ 

Mother  of  Zebedee's  sons,  342 
Motives  not  acts,  determine,  161 
Moulton,  Dr.  T.  H.,  quoted,  33 
Muller,  Max,  quoted,  274,  287 
Multitude  fed,  231 
Mystic  bread,  the,  243,  442;  wine 

443 
Mysticism  of  Jesus,  242 


Name  of  Jesus  to  be  used  in  prayer, 
^453 
Napoleon,  quoted,  69 
National    sleeps    and    awakenings, 

87 
Nativity  stories,  34 
Natural  and  supernatural,  the,   113 
Nature-wonders     in     the     Gospels, 

120 
Nazareth,  Jesus'  early  life  at,  37; 

in    the   synagogue   at,    256 
Nicodemus  and  Jesus,  199,  201 
Nicoli,  Sir  W.  R.,  quoted,  61 
Northern  journeys,  of  Jesus,  260 


Index 


515 


Olivet,  388,  424 

Oneness  with   God,   of  Jesus,   115, 

389 
Ordination      discourse      for      the 

Twelve,  146 
Origen  against  Celsus,  quoted,  261, 

323,  462 
Orr,  Dr.,  quoted,  492 
Oxyrhynchus  Logia,  quoted,  471 


Parables  of  the  mustard  seed,  the 
leaven,  the  tares,  32;  the  cruel 
creditor,  322 ;  labourers  in  the 
vineyard,  335;  the  pounds,  359; 
the  tenants  and  the  son,  382 ;  the 
rejected  stone,  384;  the  marriage 
feast,  384 

Parabolic  nature  of  the  Tempta- 
tion story,  63 

Paraclete,  the,  455 

Paradoxes  of  Christianity,  308 

Parousia  (the  coming)  of  Christ 
99.  107,  360,  421,  426,  473,  508;  of 
Buddha,  422 

Pascal,  B.,  quoted,  358 

Paschal  meal,  the,  440 

Passion,  the,  Messiah's  announce- 
ment of,  277 ;  repeated,  280 ; 
Last  Days  of  the  (Book  VIII), 
401 ;  chronology  discussed,  432 

Passion-week    ministry    in    temple, 

391 

Patriotism  included  in  Jesus*  teach- 
ing, 323 
Peabody,  Prof.  F.  P.,  cited,  312 
Peile,   Rev.  J.   H.   F.,  quoted,  301, 

307,  319 
Peraean  mission  and  vision,  207 
Peter  on  the  water,  243 ;  confesses 
the    Christ,    265 ;    refuses    belief 
in  his  death,  280;   denies  Jesus, 

474 

Personality,  theories  of,  112;  of  Je- 
sus realizes  ideal  of  his  teach- 
ings, 164 

Pfleiderer,  cited,  263 

Pharisees,  the,  and  Jesus,  127,  210 

Pilate  judges  Jesus,  475 

Plato,  quoted,  195,  278,  288,  471 ; 
cited,  23,  24 

Plotinus,  quoted,  154 

Plummer,  quoted,  63,  192,  315,  326, 
378,  381 

Popular  kingship  refused  by  Jesus, 
240 


Post-Resurrection    appearances    of 

Jesus,  495,  499  et  seq. 
Power  of  Jesus  derivative,  226 
Prayer,  power  of,  116 
Preaching,  the,  of  Jesus,  94 
Predictions  of  Jesus,  424 
Pre-existence  of  Jesus,  29 
Preparation,  Days  of  the  (Book  I), 

Prince  of  Peace,  370 

Property  arbitration  refused,  214 

Raising  the  dead,  114,  119,  215 
Ramsay,  Prof.  W.  M.,  quoted,  63, 

74.  289 
Ransom,  the  ministry  of,  338 
Rebukes  by  Jesus,  399,  404 
Regnancy  of  Jesus  as  Christ,  499 
Rejected  King,  The  (Book  V),  229 
Renan's  Life  of  Jesus,  135,  196 
Renunciation  a  special,  not  general, 

call,  143 
Resurrection  -  faith      creates      the 

Church,  486  et  seq. 
Resurrection,    the,    foreseen,    283 ; 

the,  and  later  appearances,  485 
Reuss,  cited,  249 
Rich  young  man,  the,  143,  334 
Rising  and  reappearance  of  Jesus, 

485 
Robertson,  J.  M.,  quoted,  423 
Robinson,  cited,  231 
Rousseau,  cited,  209 
Royal   Progress    (Book  VII),  349 
Rutherford,  Mark,  quoted,  33 

Sabbath,  the,  128,  182,  210,  211 
Sadducees  and  Jesus,  394,  395 
St.  Paul,  and  the  Gospels,  12;  con- 
version of,  14;  knowledge  of  Je- 
sus, 326 ;  change  of  emphasis  as 
to    coming    of    Christ,    430;    the 
earliest  literary  witness,  488 
Samaritan,  the  Good,  202 
Samaritan  woman,  the,  232 
Sanda}',   Dr.  W.,  quoted,   174,  215, 

260,  419,  452 
Sanhedrim,    fears   to    arrest   Jesus, 
199;  tries  Jesus,  472;  appeals  to 
Pilate.  475 
Sanhedrists  investigate  Jesus,  186 
Satan  and  demonology,  62 ;  in  the 

Peraean  vision,  208 
Saviours  of  mankind  expected,  422 
Schmiedel,  quoted,  487 


516 


Index 


School  of  Jesus,  The  (Book  III), 
133 

Scribe  who  would  follow  Jesus,  315 

Sects,  324 

Seeley,  Sir  J.  R.,  quoted,  196 

Self-dedication  to  Death  (Book 
VI),  285 

Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the  reports 
of,  146 ;  chiefly  designed  for  the 
Twelve,  148;  analysis  of,  149; 
Beatitudes,  152 ;  antithetic  woes, 
155;  theme  of  the,  158;  an  ideal 
of  principles,  not  a  code  of  rules, 
160 

Service,  the  standard  of  greatness, 
343 

Seventy,  the,  170,  208,  314 

Shakspere,  quoted,  438 

Shakyamuni,  287 

Shepherd,  the  Fair,  204 

Silent  years  of  Jesus,  40 

Siloam,  203 

Simon  Peter,  see  Peter 

Simon  the  Cyrenian,  479 

Simon  the  leper,  360 

Simon  the  Pharisee,  202 

Simpson,  P.  Carnegie,  quoted,  212 

Sin,  doctrines  of,  358 

Sinlessness  of  Jesus,  54,  64 

Sisters  of  Jesus,  37 

Smith,  Rev.  David,  quoted,  353,  493 

Smith,  Prof.  G.  A.,  translation 
quoted,  367 

Smith,  Dr.  Walter,  quoted,  84 

Socialism,  the  ideal,  must  be  based 
on  teachings  of  Jesus,  163 ;  and 
individualism  combined  in  Jesus' 
teaching,  313 

Society  of  the  New  Church  pre- 
pared, 301 

Socrates,  184;  and  Jesus,  196; 
quoted,  472 

Somerville,  quoted,  113 

Son  of  God,  the,  Jesus  realizing 
himself  as,  57;  temptation  of,  58 

Son  of  Man,  the,  357,  410,  420 

Sonship  and  Fatherhood,  root-con- 
ception of  Jesus'  ethic,  159 

Sophocles,  quoted,  270 

Sovereignty  of  God,  message  of  Je- 
sus, 96 

Spenser,  cited,  23 

Spinoza,  quoted,  215 

Spirit,  the,  at  the  baptism,  55 ;  re- 
lationship with  man,  59;  driving 
Jesus,  63;  as  Paraclete,  455 


Stalker,  Dr.,  quoted,  127 
Statesmanship  of  Jesus,  136 
Strauss,    quoted,    147;    cited,    368, 

489,  502,  503 
Sunday  instituted,  501 
Sun-myth  influences  on  Gospels,  494 
Sun  of  Righteousness,  the,  73 
Supper,  the  Last,  431 
Swedenborg,  cited,  56 
Swete,  H.  B.,  quoted,  495 
Symbolism  of  Jesus,  370 
Synoptic    Gospels    written    because 

men   believed  in   Pauline  Christ, 

198 
Synagogues,  early  visitation  of,  79, 

93 
Syrophoenician  tour,  260 

Tacitus,  quoted,  432 

Tatian,  cited,  92,  181 

Teleology,  112 

Temple,  the  cleansing  of,  92,  373, 

378 ;  tax,  the,  305 ;  teachings  in 

Passion-week,  391 
Temptations  of  Jesus,  as  man,  54; 

as  Son  of  God,  58;  elements  of 

the  story,  63 
Tertullian,   cited,   273 
Thaumaturgy,  175 
Tolstoy,  cited,  106,  144 
Training  of  evangelists,  169 
Transfiguration,  the,  of  Jesus,  287 ; 

of   Buddha,   287;   the   vision   of, 

291 ;    reason    for   and    effect    of, 

294-298 
Trial  of  Jesus,  472 
Tribute  money,  the,  390 
Triumphal  entry,  364 
Trypho,  Dialogue  with,  quoted,  52 
Twelve,  the,  138,  140,  146,  167,  170, 

314 

Unchurched,  the,  mission  of  Jesus 

to,  131 
Universality  of  Christianity,  428 

Valediction  of  Jesus,  446 

Venerable  Bede,  the,  quoted,  381 

Vine,  the,  and  the  branches,  449 

Virgil,  quoted,  42,  302 

Virgin  birth,  the,  34,  36 

Vision,  the  Peraean,  207 ;  nature  of, 

291. 
Voice  in  the  wilderness,  the,  42 
Voices  from  the  sky,  414 


Index 


517 


Walking  on  the  water,  243 

Washing  of  feet,  the,  437 

Washing  of  hands,  259 

Water  of  Life,  the,  200 

Weiss,    Dr.    Bernhard,   quoted,   52, 

107,  506 
Wellhausen,  cited,  107 
Wendt,  T.  J.,  quoted,  94,  273 ;  cited, 

249,  448,  500,  502 
Wernle,    Prof.    Paul,    quoted,    290, 

322,  326 
Westcott,  Dr.,  quoted,  92,  181,  187, 

216,  360,  487,  489 
Westcott  and  Hort,  quoted,  506 
Widow's  mite,  the,  404 
Wieseler,  quoted,  192,  330 
Withered  hand,  man  with,  130 
Woman   healed   of   long  infirmity, 


Words  of  Jesus,  The,  quoted,  loi 
Wordsworth,  quoted,  m 
World-conditions    in    Jesus'    time, 

33,  42 
World,  Light  of  the,  200 


Xavier,  Francis,  quoted,  466 


Young  man,  the  rich,  324;   ruler, 
the,  315 


Zacchaeus,  355 

Zebedee,  ambitious  sons  of,  342 

Zeit-geist,    influence    upon    Jesus, 

417 
Zigabenus,  Euthemius,  quoted,  406 


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